Tara Patricia Cookson BA, MA

PhD Candidate

Tara's research looks at the gendered impacts of current trends in social policy within the Latin American region. Her work incorporates feminist, critical International Political Economy and post-colonial theory.

Biography

Qualifications

PhD Candidate: Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, 2011 - current
MA: Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto, 2010
BA: Major in International Relations, Minor in Spanish, Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, University of British Columbia, Major, 2009

Career

Teaching Assistant, Women and Gender Studies Institute, University of Toronto (2009 – 2010)
Project Developer, Kelowna Women's Resource Centre, Canada (2009)
Project Developer, ACORN Latin America, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2008 – 2009)
Research Assistant under Dr Adam Jones, Political Science, University of British Columbia (2008)

Awards and scholarships

Gates Cambridge Scholarship, 2011 – 2014
University of Toronto Fellowship, 2009 – 2010
Hugh Brockman Education Abroad Scholarship for study at the Universidad de las Americas, Puebla, Mexico, 2006 - 2007

Research

My doctoral research project has developed largely out of an interest in social reproduction, work that I have done in community organizations, and the research that I undertook for my master's thesis, which looked at progressive changes to recognize the value of women's unpaid household labour in the 1998 Venezuelan Constitution. My current work continues upon my MA thesis' exploration of the ways in which women's unpaid caring labour is taken up at the level of policy, however now focusing on the ways in which it plays out in the day-to-day lives of women.

I am interested specifically in the conditional cash transfer (CCT) as a social policy tool that seeks to alleviate poverty through 'human investment.' Over the past decades and a half, the majority of Latin American countries have adopted some variation of the CCT. While applauded by many international financial and development organizations, policy experts and academics, there is a noticeable lack of research that asks questions about the women whose unpaid caring labour forms the backbone of the programs. Thinking about shifts in neoliberal governance, care work and gender, my research intends to contribute to filling this crucial gap.

Publications

Conferences and publications

Cookson, T.P. (2012) Women's Unpaid Caring Labour in Post-neoliberal Latin America: The Radical Promise of Article 88. Globalization and the Changes in Cultures of Care and Survival: Local and Global Dimensions. Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana. Feb 21-22, 2012.
Cookson, T.P. (2009) Behind Closed Doors: How Venezuelan law is challenging the notion of home as haven. Race, Space and Citizenship Conference, OISE, University of Toronto, Nov 28, 2009

External activities

Board Member, Kelowna Women's Resource Centre, Canada, (2007 – 2009)
Events Committee member, Kelowna Women's Resource Centre, Canada (2007 – 2009)
English as a Second Language community project coordinator, Club ACORN, Buenos Aires, Argentina (2008 – 2009)