Gabriela Ceja Morales
Research Interests: Urban and Environmental Sociology; Tourism, Leisure and Culture; Work and Migration.
Pronouns: she/her
Education
Ph.D., Sociology. State University of New York at Buffalo, SUNY. 2026. (Expected)
M.A., Labor Studies. City University of New York, CUNY. 2018.
B.A., Visual Arts. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, UNAM. 2007.
Recent courses:
Urban Sociology
Population Problems
Introduction to Sociology
Classical Sociological Theory
Sociology of Diversity
Bio: Gabriela Ceja is a PhD candidate at the University at Buffalo. She examines the production of urban space and the socio-environmental inequalities of industrial development. Using qualitative research methods, she examines the narratives, aesthetics, forms of privatization and exclusion of "eco-luxury" enclaves in the Mexican Caribbean; as well as the forms of racialization and environmental injustice endured by tourism migrant workers. Gabriela has also worked as a labor organizer in the New York City area, where she produced numerous art and education projects with diverse communities.
Publications:
Ceja Morales, Gabriela. 2025. “The Production of ‘Eco-Chic’ Tourism: Exclusion and Environmental Inequality in Tulum, Mexico.” Environmental Sociology, November, 1–15. Doi:10.1080/23251042.2025.2592167
Papers under review:
Ceja Morales, Gabriela. 2025. “Racial Capitalism and Tourism Expansion: Axes of Differentiation, Exploitation and Exclusion and the ‘Paradise Dividend’ in the Mexican Caribbean”
Ceja Morales, Gabriela and Mary Nell Trautner. 2024. “The Invisibility of Inequality: Men’s Perspectives of Gender Issues in the Workplace.”
Manuscripts in Progress:
Ceja Morales, Gabriela. 2025. “Enclaves of Externalization and Unequal Exchange: Liminality, Deregulation and the Economies of Deviance of Tourism.”
Conference presentations:
Gabriela Ceja Morales “Racial Capitalism and Tourism Expansion: The Organization of a Stratified Labor Force in the Mexican Caribbean.” Agents and Structures of Urban Change. Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Chicago, 2025.
Gabriela Ceja Morales “Bespoke Eco-security and the Environmental Inequalities of Green Luxury Developments in Tulum, Mexico.” Environmental Sociology Section Panel. Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Montreal, 2024.
Gabriela Ceja Morales and Mary-Nell Trautner. “The Invisibility of Inequality: Men’s Perspectives of Gender Issues in the Workplace’. Gender and Work roundtables. Annual meeting of the American Sociological Association, Philadelphia, 2023.
Gabriela Ceja Morales. Immigrant Workers Organized: Challenges, Achievements and the Trump Times. Conference organizer and presider. CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies. New York, 2017.
Email: gcejamor@buffalo.edu