Tanya Bandula-Irwin

Tanya Bandula-Irwin is an incoming SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow at Northwestern University and a postdoctoral researcher with ICTD, specialising in the political economy of conflict, governance, and taxation. Her research examines how armed groups develop taxation and financing systems, their relationships with civilians, and the broader implications for state-building and governance. She has conducted field research in the Philippines and Somalia, exploring citizen-led financing for development and how local communities mobilize resources to fill governance gaps. Her PhD dissertation analysed the taxation practices of armed groups in the Philippines. Her work has been supported by the International Development Research Centre, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and the Department of National Defence and has been published in Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, Journal of Eastern African Studies, PS: Political Science & Politics, and UBC Press.