Tasha Fairfield

Professional Overview

Tasha Fairfield is an Associate Professor in Development Studies at the London School of Economics' Department of International Development. Her work bridges comparative politics and qualitative methodology, focusing on Latin American political economy, tax policy, and Bayesian inferential frameworks. She holds a PhD from UC Berkeley and has held prestigious fellowships at Stanford’s CASBS and the University of Notre Dame’s Kellogg Institute.

Education

• PhD in Political Science, UC Berkeley
• MA in Latin American Studies, Stanford
• MS in Physics, Stanford
• AB in Physics (summa cum laude), Harvard

Research Interests

Her research examines how economic elites influence tax policies in Latin America and applies Bayesian methods to qualitative analysis. Key themes include inequality, business-state relations, and methodological transparency. Notable works include Private Wealth and Public Revenue in Latin America (Cambridge, 2015) and co-authored Social Inquiry and Bayesian Inference (Cambridge, 2022).

Recognition

• 2024 APSA-QMMR David Collier Mid-Career Achievement Award
• 2019 LASA Best Article Prize for Redistribution under the Right
• 2017 Sage Best Paper Award for Bayesian process tracing work

Grants & Service

Funded by the Mellon Foundation, SSRC, and ICTD. She serves on the APSA Qualitative Methods Executive Committee and co-leads Bayesian reasoning workshops globally. Teaching excellence recognized with LSE awards (2019, 2023).