A woman with brown hair smiling, wearing a navy blazer and a polka dot blouse, standing in front of a brick wall.
Book titled 'Good Kids' by Isabel Jijon, featuring a colorful illustration of children holding signs and protesting.

Isabel Jijón

Lecturer on sociology at Harvard University

I am a cultural sociologist who studies childhood, inequality, and the intersection of morality and markets. I am interested in how people draw moral boundaries in markets and how this impacts vulnerable actors, especially children. My research is comparative, qualitative, and focused on Latin America and the global South. It centers on two main themes: 

  1. Contested commodities: How do people decide which goods, services, or labor should or shouldn’t be for sale? How do we create, transform, or challenge the moral boundaries of a market? 

  2. Childhood and children’s rights: How does global inequality affect children? And how do children, even the most marginalized or vulnerable, “talk back,” finding meaning in conditions not of their own choosing? 

I explore these two interests in my book, Good Kids: The Politics of Child Labor in the Global South (Stanford University Press, 2025). This book won the American Sociological Association's Viviana Zelizer Best Book in Economic Sociology Award (2026). I have also published on children’s rights, globalization, collective memory, and the sociology of sport. See my research page for more details. 

At Harvard, I teach courses on morality and markets, consumption, stigma, children’s rights, and the sociology of sport. I am also a Data Consultant at the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), in the Child Protection and Development Team. I have a Ph.D. with distinction in sociology from Yale University and a B.A. Magna Cum Laude from Yale College.

Contact me at ijijon at fas dot harvard dot edu