Summer Jackson

Summer Jackson is an Assistant Professor of Business Administration in the Organizational Behavior Unit at Harvard Business School. She teaches LEAD in the MBA required curriculum.

Professor Jackson is an organizational ethnographer and field researcher who studies organizational inequality, social hierarchies (such as race, gender, and class), and related topics in the sociology of work and occupations. In particular, she studies the policies and practices associated with building diverse, inclusive, and equitable workforces. Her dissertation focused on diversity and inclusion initiatives at a fast-growth technology company, and was recognized as the winner of the 2020 INFORMS/Organization Science Dissertation Proposal Competition.

Professor Jackson earned a Ph.D. and M.S. from MIT Sloan School of Management, and a B.A. in International Relations from Stanford University. She has lived and worked throughout the Middle East, and prior to graduate school worked for the U.S. Department of State.

AREAS OF INTEREST

• diversity
• economic sociology
• ethnography
• organizational behavior
• qualitative research

AWARDS & HONORS

• Recipient of an MIT Sloan PhD Fellowship, 2016–2021.
• Winner of the 2020 INFORMS Best Dissertation Proposal Competition for “Understanding Organizational Inequality at ‘Well Intentioned’ Companies: The Case of ShopCo’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies and Practices.”
• Recipient of Funding Support and Participant in the NYU Stern Diverse Pathways in Academia Conference in 2019.
• Named as an MIT Graduate Women of Excellence Honoree in 2019.
• Recipient of an MIT Presidential Fellowship in 2016.
• Recipient of Fieldwork Funding Support from the Good Companies, Good Jobs Initiative, 2018–2019.
• Recipient of the Meritorious Honor Award from the U.S. Department of State in 2015.

PUBLICATIONS

WORKING PAPERS

• Jackson, Summer R., and Katherine C. Kellogg. "Triadic Advocacy Work: Navigating Tensions with Beneficiaries and Advocacy Targets to Advance the Rights of Disadvantaged Group Members." Working Paper, 2020.
• Jackson, Summer R. "(Not) Paying for Diversity: Repugnance and Failure to Choose Labor Market Platforms that Facilitate Hiring Racial Minorities into Technical Positions." Working Paper, 2021.