SARAH BROTHERS
The Pennsylvania State University
University Park PA 16802
613 Susan Welch Liberal Arts Building
APPOINTMENTS
The Pennsylvania State University,
Assistant Professor of Sociology and Public Policy, 2021-
Affiliated Faculty, The Rock Ethics Institute, Consortium on Substance Use and Addiction, Social Science Research Institute, Population Research Institute
EDUCATION
2021 Ph.D., Sociology, Yale University
Dissertation: “Expertise, Gender, and Marginality among People who Inject Drugs”
- Roberta G. Simmons Outstanding Dissertation in Medical Sociology Award, American Sociological Association
- The Nicholas C. Mullins Prize, The Society for Social Studies of Science
2017 M.A., Sociology, Yale University
2013 B.A., Sociology, High Honors, Highest Distinction, University of California, Berkeley
2011 A.S., Social and Behavioral Science, Highest Honors; A.A., Arts and Humanities, Highest Honors; A.A., English, Highest Honors, City College of San Francisco
AREAS OF INTEREST
Medical Sociology, Expertise, Substance Use, Gender, Inequality and Marginality, Qualitative Methods, Ethnography, Community Driven Research
PEER-REVIEWED ARTICLES
Brothers, Sarah, Caty Simon, Louise Vincent. 2024. “Community Driven Research with People who Use Drugs: A Virtual Project During Multiple Epidemics.” Sociological Methodology. 55(1):155-181.
Textor, Lauren, Joseph Friedman, Phillipe Bourgois, Shoshana Aronowitz, Caty Simon, Marie Jauffret-Roustide, Sarah Namirembe, Sarah Brothers, Ryan McNeil, Helena Hansen. “Rurality Revisited: Problematizing Urban-Rural Designations in Public Health Surveillance of the Overdose Crisis and Crafting an Agenda for Future Monitoring.” International Journal of Drug Policy. 118: 104072.
Brothers, Sarah, Adam Palayew, Caty Simon, Abby Coulter, Knina Strichartz, Nick Voyles, Louise Vincent. 2023. “Patient Experiences of Methadone Treatment Changes During the First Wave of COVID-19: A National Community Driven Survey.” Harm Reduction Journal. 20:31.
Brothers, Sarah, Elizabeth DiDomizio, Lisa Nichols, Ralph Brooks, Merceditas Villanueva. 2022. “Perceptions towards HCV Treatment with Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAs): A Qualitative Analysis with HIV/HCV Co-infected Persons who Delay or Refuse Treatment” AIDS and Behavior 1-15.
–Roy C. Buck Award for best published article in the social sciences by an untenured faculty member from the College of Liberal Arts at Pennsylvania State University
Simon, Caty, Louise Vincent, Abby Coulter, Zach Salazar, Nick Voyles, Lindsay Roberts, David Frank, Sarah Brothers. 2022. “The Methadone Manifesto: Research and Policy Recommendations from Methadone Patient Activists.” AJPH112(S2) S117–S122
– Publication Award, American Sociology Association Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Section
Brothers, Sarah, Adam Viera, Robert Heimer. 2021. “Changes in Methadone Program Practices and Fatal Methadone Overdose Rates in Connecticut during COVID-19.” Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment (131) 108449.
Simon, Caty, Sarah Brothers, Knina Strichartz, Abby Coulter, Nick Voyles, Anna Herdlein, Louise Vincent. 2021. “We are the Researched, the Researchers, and the Discounted: The Experiences of Drug User Activists as Researchers.” International Journal of Drug Policy 103364.
Ceasar, Rachel Carmen, Jesse Goldshear, Kelsey Simpson, Sarah Brothers, Lynn Wenger, Alex Kral, Ricky Bluthenthal. 2021. “Injuries and Infectious Disease Risk that Occurs when Providing Injection Assistance to People who Inject Drugs.” International Journal of Drug Policy (97) 103297.
Brothers, Sarah, Alex H. Kral, Lynn Wenger, Kelsey Simpson, and Ricky N. Bluthenthal. 2021. “Assisted Injection Provider Characteristics and Motivations in Los Angeles and San Francisco California 2016-18.” International Journal of Drug Policy (93) 103052.
Grau, Lauretta, Sarah Brothers, Ja Young Kim, Arnaaz Khwaja, Robert Heimer, and Thomas Stopka. 2021. “The HIV Care Continuum in Small Cities of Southern New England: Perspectives of People Living with HIV/AIDS, Public Health Experts, and HIV Service Providers.” Aids and Behavior (3) 897-907.
Brothers, Sarah and Stephanie Bell Jilcott. 2020. “The Need for Evidence-Based Interventions to Reduce Food Insecurity Among College Students.” Journal of Appalachian Health (2) 2:1-6.
Brothers, Sarah, Jess Lin, Jeffrey Schonberg, Corey Drew, and Colette Auerswald. 2020. “Food Insecurity among Formerly Homeless Youth in Permanent Supportive Housing: A Social-Ecological Analysis of a Structural Intervention.” Social Science & Medicine (245C) 112724:1-10.
Brothers, Sarah. 2019. “A Good Doctor is Hard to Find: Assessing Uncredentialed Expertise in Assisted Injection.” Social Science & Medicine (237) 112446:1-8.
- Hacker-Mullins Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section
- Bruce D. Johnson Graduate Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association Alcohol, Drugs, and Crime Section
- Graduate Student Paper Prize, Society for Medical Anthropology Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Study Group
- Graduate Student Paper Award, Society for Medical Anthropology AIDS and Anthropology Research Group
Brothers, Sarah. 2016. “Merchants, Samaritans, and Public Health Workers: Secondary Syringe Exchanger Discursive Practices.” International Journal of Drug Policy (37)1-8.
Brothers, Sarah, Jeffrey Schonberg, Jess Lin, Deborah Karasek, and Colette Auerswald. 2015. “A Home of One’s Own: Formerly Homeless Youth’s Experiences of Transition into Permanent Supportive Housing.” Journal of Adolescent Health(56) 2: S9.
MANUSCRIPTS IN PROGRESS
Brothers, Sarah. Hit Doctors: Life, Death, and Expertise Among People Who Inject Drugs. (Under contract with University of California Press)
Brothers, Sarah. “‘I Don’t Need Another One Dying:’ How People who Inject Drugs Manage Uncertainty and Risk in the Overdose Epidemic.”
AWARDS AND HONORS
2024 Roy C. Buck Award for best published article in the social sciences by an untenured faculty member from the College of Liberal Arts at Pennsylvania State University.
2023 Distinguished Reviewer Award, Harm Reduction Journal
2022 Public Sociology Publication Award for Significant Contributions to Applied and Public Sociology, American Sociology Association Sociological Practice and Public Sociology Section.
2021 The Nicholas C. Mullins Prize, The Society for Social Studies of Science.
2021 Roberta G. Simmons Outstanding Dissertation in Medical Sociology Award, ASA Section on MedicalSociology.
2020 Hacker-Mullins Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association Science, Knowledge, and Technology Section.
2019 Bruce D. Johnson Graduate Student Paper Award, American Sociological Association Alcohol, Drugs, and Crime Section.
2019 Graduate Student Paper Award, The Society for Medical Anthropology AIDS and Anthropology Research Group.
2019 Graduate Student Paper Prize, The Society for Medical Anthropology Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Study Group.
2019 Sociologist AIDS Network (SAN) Scholarly Activity Award.
2017 Martin Levine Student Paper Award, Sociologists AIDS Network (SAN).
2017 Affiliate, Research Project Affiliation, Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS (CIRA).
2013 Phi Beta Kappa, University of California Berkeley.
2012-2013 Dean’s List, University of California, Berkeley.
GRANTS AND FELLOWSHIPS
2023-2025 Fordham University HIV and Drug Abuse Prevention Research Ethics Training Institute Fellowship.
2023 The Ann Johnson Institute for Science, Technology, and Society 2023 Writer’s Workshop on Medicine, Technology, and Marginalized Populations.
2022-2023 Pennsylvania State University Rock Ethics Institute Faculty Fellowship
2022 Principal Investigator. “Organized Knowledge Production by People who Use Drugs: Ethical Collaborative Research in Theory and Practice During the Overdose Epidemic.” Criminal Justice Research Center Seed Grant, Pennsylvania State University. ($7,500)
2020 Mellon/American Academy of Learned Societies (ACLS) Dissertation Completion Fellowship. ($38,000)
2020 Woodrow Wilson Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship in Women’s Studies. ($5,000)
2019-2020 Yale University Annie G. K. Garland Memorial Fellowship.
2019 Yale Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Fellowship. ($750)
2018 Philanthropic Educational Organization P.E.O. Scholars Award. ($15,000)
2018 Yale Club of San Francisco Summer Research Grant. ($3,500)
2018 Yale Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Fellowship. ($750)
2018 Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies Research Grant. ($1,200)
2017-2019 Yale Department of Sociology Camp Grant.
2017-2018 Yale Institution for Social and Policy Studies Graduate Policy Fellow. ($3,000)
2016-2019 National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. ($138,000)
2016 Yale Graduate Student Assembly Conference Travel Fellowship. ($750)
2016 Yale University Sterling Prize Fellowship.
2015 National Science Foundation Honorable Mention, Graduate Research Fellowship.
2014 Yale University Sterling Prize Fellowship.
2014 Yale University Global Health Justice Partnership Student Fellow.
2013 University of California Berkeley Center for Ethnographic Research Summer Research Workshop Scholarship.
2011 City College of San Francisco Bernard Osher Foundation Scholar.
2010 Transfer Alliance Project (TAP)/Jack Kent Cooke Summer Enrichment Scholarship.
INVITED PRESENTATIONS
2024 “Community Engaged Research with People Who Use Drugs: Suggestions for Connection, Implementation, and Dissemination from a Community Driven Research Project.”
- Speaker, Community Engaged Research Panel, The Center for Drug Use and HIV Research (CDUHR), NYU School of Global Public Health, New York, New York.
“Community Engaged Research with People who use drugs: Connection, Implementation, and Dissemination.”
- Speaker, Envisioning a National Research Agenda for Harm Reduction Panel. National Academies Workshop on Harm Reduction Services for People Who Use Drugs: Exploring Data Collection, Evidence Gaps, and Research Needs, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy, National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, Washington, DC
Proceedings: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2024.
Harm Reduction Services for People Who Use Drugs: Exploring Data Collection, Evidence Gaps, and Research: Proceedings of a Workshop in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. https://doi.org/10.17226/27650.
2023 “Listening Session with Dr. Nora Volkow, Director of NIDA.”
- Co-facilitator, with Dr. Nabarun Dasgupta, Drug Policy Alliance (DPA) Reform Conference, Phoenix, Arizona
“Conducting Community-Engaged Research on Substance Use.”
- Co-organizer, with Caty Simon and Bianca Rivera, Moderator, Liberating Methadone: Building a Roadmap and Community for Change Conference, New York University NYU Langone’s Center for Opioid Epidemiology and Policy
“Community Driven Research with People who Use Drugs: Ethical Implications of a Virtual Project During Multiple Epidemics.”
- Rock Ethics Institute Colloquia series, Rock Ethics Institute, Pennsylvania State University
“Gender and the Ethics of Care in Practices by People who Inject Drugs.”
- Bioethics Colloquium, Pennsylvania State University
“Community Driven Research in Theory and Practice”
- Panel on Research with People who Use Drugs, University of Kentucky
2023 “Virtual Community Driven Research with People who Use Drugs During COVID-19.”
- ASA Section on Sociological Practice and Public Sociology (SPPS) Webinar Series
“Methadone Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder During the Overdose Crisis: Opportunities and Challenges for Expanding Access”
- Paterno Fellows Lunch, Pennsylvania State University
“Necessary Precautions When Conducting Qualitative Research with Vulnerable Populations”
- Scholarship and Research Integrity (SARI) Program, Office for Research Protections, Pennsylvania State University
“Community Driven Research Roundtable Discussion”
- Sex Work Activist Histories Project (SWAHP) and Centre for Professional and Applied Ethics, University of Manitoba
“Getting Community Driven Research Off the Ground”
- Drug Policy Alliance and National Survivors Union Webinar Series
2022 “Making the Case for Community Driven Research.”
- “Beyond participatory-based research: Innovations in community driven drug policy research,” Drug Policy Alliance Webinar Series
“Protective Practices and Knowledge Dissemination by People who Use Drugs.”
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai
2021 “Hit Doctors at Work: Marginality and Uncredentialed Expertise among People who Inject Drugs.”
- Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Addiction Institute at Mount Sinai
- Qualitative Research Discussion Group, CIRA, New Haven, CT
“Community Directed Research in Theory and Practice”
- Panel on Centering the Perspectives of People Who Use Drugs in Research, University of Kentucky
2020 “Expertise, Gender, and Marginality: Health Related Practices among People who Inject Drugs in the United States.”
- Workshop in Urban Ethnography, Yale University
- Contemporary Ethnography and Inequality (CEI) Workshop, Harvard University
“Changes in Methadone Clinic Practices and Fatal Methadone Overdose Rates in Connecticut during COVID-19.” With Adam Viera.
- Yale Program in Addiction Medicine, Yale School of Medicine
2019 “A Good ‘Doctor’ is Hard to Find: Expertise and Interaction Dynamics in Assisted Injections.” Qualitative Research Discussion Group, CIRA, New Haven, CT
2018 “Protective Practices by People who Inject Drugs.”
- Yale Club of San Francisco, San Francisco CA
- P.E.O Sisterhood, Guilford, CT
2016 “Harm Reduction and Protective Practices by Persons Who Inject Drugs.” Hunter College, Department of Sociology
2013 “Peer Exchangers: Risk Behaviors, Social Networks, and Motivations.” San Francisco Aids Foundation, San Francisco, CA
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
2022 Brothers, Sarah. “Organized Knowledge Production by People who Use Drugs: Ethical Collaborative Research During the Overdose Epidemic.” Society for the Social Studies of Science Conference, Cholula, MX
Brothers, Sarah, Caty Simon, Kimberly Sue. “Community Driven Research: Utilizing A New Framework to Work with People Who Use Drugs.” AMERSA, Boston, MA
Brothers, Sarah, Elizabeth DiDomizio, Lisa Nichols, Ralph Brooks, Merceditas Villanueva. “DAA Treatment Attitudes among HIV/HCV Co-infected Persons who Delay or Refuse HCV Treatment.” 2022 National Ryan White Conference on HIV Care & Treatment.
2021 Brothers, Sarah. “Hit Doctors at Work: Uncredentialed Expertise among People who Inject Drugs.”
- American Sociological Association Conference, Medical Sociology session, “Power and Uncertainty of Medicalization.”
- Culture and Politics Workshop, Pennsylvania State University
Brothers, Sarah, Elizabeth DiDomizio, Lisa Nichols, Ralph Brooks, Merceditas Villanueva. “DAA Treatment Attitudes among HIV/HCV Co-infected Persons who Delay HCV Treatment: A Qualitative Analysis.”
- SYNChronicity Conference for HIV, HCV, STD, and LGBTQ health
- Connecticut Infectious Disease Society Conference
2020 Brothers, Sarah. “Expertise, Gender, and Marginality: Health Related Practices among People who Inject Drugs in the United States.” Comparative Research Workshop, Yale University
Brothers, Sarah. “Degendering Vulnerability: Power and Gender in Assisted Injection Practices by People who Inject Drugs.”
- Junior Theorists Symposium, Berkeley, CA
- Comparative Research Workshop, Yale University
Brothers, Sarah. “‘I Don’t Need Another One Dying:’ How People who Inject Drugs Manage Uncertainty and Risk in the Overdose Epidemic.” American Sociological Association Conference, San Francisco, CA
Brothers, Sarah. “‘If I Can Feel It, I Can Hit You.’ How Assisted Injection Providers Develop and Perform Expertise in Their Practice.” RebPsych 2020: Decolonizing Mental Health Conference, Yale School of Medicine (canceled)
2019 Brothers, Sarah, Alex H. Kral, Lynn Wenger, Kelsey Simpson, and Ricky N. Bluthenthal. “Who, Where, Why and How Often: Characteristics of Providing Injection Assistance among People who Inject Drugs (PWID) in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, 2016-18.” Harm Reduction International Conference, Porto, Portugal
Bluthenthal, Ricky N., Sarah Brothers, Lynn Wenger, Kelsey Simpson, Alex H. Kral. “Factors Associated with Neck Injection among People who Inject Drugs in Los Angeles and San Francisco, California, 2016-18: Harm Reduction Implications.” Harm Reduction International Conference, Porto, Portugal
Brothers, Sarah. “A Good Doctor is Hard to Find: Assessing Uncredentialled Expertise in Assisted Injection.”
- Chicago Ethnography Conference, Northwestern University
- ASA Preconference on Social Science and Social Justice, New York, NY
- Society for the Social Studies of Science Conference, New Orleans, LA
Brothers, Sarah. “Degendering Vulnerability: Power and Emotion in Assisted Injection Interactions.” American Sociological Association Conference, New York, NY
2018 Brothers, Sarah. “Doctoring by People who Inject Drugs: Lay Expertise in Assisted Injection Practices.”
- Comparative Research Workshop, Yale University
- American Sociological Association Conference, Philadelphia, PA
2017 Brothers, Sarah, Drew, Corey, Lin, Jess, Auerswald, Colette. “Persistent Food Insecurity after Provision of Housing to Youth Experiencing Homelessness.” International Association for Adolescent Health Conference, Delhi, India
Brothers, Sarah. “A Good Doctor is Hard to Find: Assisted Injection Expertise among Persons who Inject Drugs.”
- Society for the Social Studies of Science Conference, Boston, MA
- Chicago Ethnography Conference, University of Illinois, Chicago, IL
Brothers, Sarah. “Secondary Syringe Exchange: Collective Efficacy through Informal Public Health Practice in Vulnerable Communities.” American Sociological Association Conference, Montreal, Canada
2016 Brothers, Sarah. “A Good Doctor is Hard to Find: Assisted Injection Practices Among Those Who Inject Drugs.” National Harm Reduction Conference, San Diego, CA
Brothers, Sarah. “A Good Doctor is Hard to Find: Affect and Expertise in Injection Drug User Assisted Injection Interactions.”
- American Sociological Association Conference, Seattle, WA
- Expertise Graduate Student Conference, Columbia University
- Sociology Conference, New School for Social Research
- Violence + Health Workshop, Yale University
2015 Brothers, Sarah. “The Gendered Construction of Knowledge in Public Health Literature on Assisted Injection.” Comparative Research Workshop, Yale University
Brothers, Sarah. “Peer Syringe Exchangers: Licit Practices Transformed in an Illicit Field.” American Sociological Association Conference, Chicago, Il
Brothers, Sarah. “A Home of One’s Own: Formerly Homeless Youth’s Experiences of Transition into Permanent Supportive Housing.” Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine (SAHM), Los Angeles, CA
2014 Brothers, Sarah. “Health and Hearth: Formerly Homeless Youths’ Experiences of Transition into Permanent Supportive Housing.” APHA, New Orleans, LA
2013 Brothers, Sarah. “San Francisco Secondary Syringe Exchangers.” Fifth Annual Undergraduate Research Symposium, University of California, Berkeley
Brothers, Sarah. “Social and Exchange Networks of San Francisco Secondary Syringe Exchangers.” Pacific Sociological Association, Reno, NV
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Drugs and Society (graduate). Pennsylvania State University. Spring 2023.
Introduction to Sociology, Pennsylvania State University. Spring 2022.
Sociology of Homelessness, Pennsylvania State University. Spring 2022, Spring 2024.
Graduate student mentor, Evaluation of Housing as a Structural Intervention for Homeless Youth. University of California, Berkeley Youth Equity Scholars (YES) and Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program (URAP). 2020-2021.
Collaborator and lecturer, Yale School of Medicine’s Psychiatry Department Social Justice & Health Equity curriculum. Spring 2018, Spring 2019.
Reader, Medical Sociology, Professor Laura Nathan, University of California, Berkeley. Spring, 2014.
Reader, Sociology of Culture, Professor Jill Bakehorn, University of California, Berkeley. Spring, 2013.
Reader, Principles of Sociology, Professor Mary Kelsey, University of California, Berkeley. Fall, 2012.
Teaching Assistant, Modern Art History, Professor Diana Scott, City College of San Francisco. Spring and Fall, 2010.
SERVICE
2024 Organizer, Science Regular Sessions, ASA Conference
2024 Member, ASA SKAT Star-Nelkin Paper Prize Committee
2024 Member, Sociology Graduate Committee
2023 Member, Sociology and Latina/o Studies Search Committee
2023 Member, Public Policy Undergraduate Committee
2023 Member, ASA SKAT Robert K. Merton Book Award Committee
2022- Member, Job Market Committee, Sociology Department, Pennsylvania State University
2022 Presider, Session on “Clinical Research” American Sociological Association Conference
2022- Member, NIDA Data and Safety Monitor Board (DSBM) for “Office-based methadone versus buprenorphine to address retention in medication for opioid use disorder– a pragmatic hybrid effectiveness/implementation trial”
2022 Member, ASA Simmons Award Committee for Outstanding Dissertation
2022 Member, ASA SKAT Star-Nelkin Paper Award Committee
2021- Member, Ad Hoc Committee on Best Practices for Promoting Diversity in Recruitment, Sociology Department, Pennsylvania State University
2021 Co-Organizer, Junior Theorists Symposium [ASA Theory Section]
2020 The Society for Medical Anthropology Alcohol, Drugs, and Tobacco Study Group Graduate Student Paper Prize Committee
2020-2021 Member, New Haven Harm Reduction Working Group
2020- Member, Urban Survivors Union, Covid-19 Response and Methadone Reform Groups
2019-2021 Organizer, Yale Medical Anthropology Working Group. Funded through Dean’s Fund for Research Workshops, Seminars and Colloquia Award
2018-2019 Co-Organizer (with Kristen McLean), Yale Medical Anthropology Working Group. Funded through Dean’s Fund for Research Workshops, Seminars and Colloquia Award
2018 Martin Levine Student Paper Award Committee, Sociologists AIDS Network
2017- 2018 Co-Organizer (with Tina Law), Yale Inter-disciplinary Graduate Workgroup on Urban Social Science. Funded through Dean’s Fund for Research Workshops, Seminars and Colloquia Award
2015-2017 Member, Yale Medical Anthropology Working Group
2016-2017 Yale Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) Elected Representative
2015 Editor, Yale Journal of Health Policy, Law, and Ethics
2010- 2016 Syringe Exchange site supervisor, Narcan trainer, volunteer, San Francisco Aids Foundation (SFAF)
Regular Reviewer: Harm Reduction Journal
Ad hoc Reviewer: Social Science and Medicine, Social Studies of Science, AJPH, International Journal of Drug Policy, SSM- Qualitative Research in Health, Journal of Drug Issues, Evaluation and Program Planning, Current Developments in Nutrition, Journal of Appalachian Health, Journal of Health and Social Behavior
Sarah Brothers 