Taft Crowley is a PhD student in the Department of Political Science. His subfield concentrations are political economy and comparative politics. Through these lenses Taft focuses on issues of migration, land reform, demographic imbalances, and the politics of LGBTQ Americans. His current project aims to understand the connection between land reform and migration in Central America. This project hopes to better explain the constraints and choices of potential migrants in the Northern Triangle, with the hope that such work can better inform policy choices in migrant origin and destination states. Taft’s other work has sought to understand the politics resulting from male surpluses in India and changing group solidarity within cis-gay men in the US.

I am a PhD student in Economics. Prior to UCSB, I studied at the University of Delhi and the University of Texas at Austin. I've also previously worked on field research in India and Kenya on a wide range of topics in education, child health & nutrition, voter preferences, and cash transfer programs. My primary research interests are labor and development economics. I am especially interested in issues related to gender and education. I'm currently working on research projects on the effect of labor market opportunities for women on fertility and the effect of public school access on student learning in India.

I completed my B.A. in Sociology and an M.A. in Demographic and Social Analysis at UC Irvine. I plan to pursue research pertaining to gender and work, focusing on women in traditionally male-dominated occupations, with an emphasis on women in STEM professions.