Isabel Jijon is a lecturer on sociology at Harvard University. Her research examines culture, inequality, childhood, and globalization. Her work is comparative and focuses on Latin America and the global South. Her recent book Good Kids: The Politics of Child Labor in the Global South was published with Stanford University Press (July 2025). In it, she analyzes a common but misunderstood problem in child rights advocacy, how transnational campaigns against child labor can unintentionally stigmatize the very children they want to protect. Isabel has also published on globalization and collective memory, globalization and sport, and theories of translation.
Isabel has a Ph.D. with distinction from Yale University. She was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University, a Visiting Assistant Professor at Purchase College, and a Postdoctoral Associate at Yale’s Fox International Fellowship. Isabel is currently a Research Consultant at UNICEF’s Child Protection and Development Team. She received a 21st Century Dissertation Prize from Yale University for her research on child labor, given to a distinguished sociology dissertation that contributes to public policy or the public interest.