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Robyn Lewis Brown

Education:
Ph.D., Florida State University, 2010
Biography:

I am a feminist scholar specializing in the study of social stress, disability, and mental health across the life course. My work emphasizes the relevance of stigma, discrimination, and macro-level stressors for health and healthcare experiences. With the support of grant funding throughout my career, including most recently a Switzer Fellowship from the Department of Health and Human Services (NIDILRR), I have published more than 75 manuscripts examining mental health disparities and health outcomes using mixed research methodologies. My research portfolio spans investigations of gender differences in stress and health, collective trauma (including the Great Recession, 9/11 attacks, and COVID-19 pandemic), and disability-related experiences of stigma and discrimination. Recent projects focus on pandemic-related stress, stigmas associated with opioid use, and the long-term impact of economic downturns on employment trajectories and health among people with disabilities.

I teach at both graduate and undergraduate levels, with courses including statistics, programming and data analytics, research methods, sociology of health and disability, and social psychology. Through my teaching and mentoring, I work with students across multiple disciplines, maintaining strong affiliations with the Colleges of Medicine, Health Sciences, and Public Health alongside my home department in Sociology.

My scholarly impact extends to several editorial roles, including co-editorship of the Oxford Handbook on the Sociology of Disability (2023) and Research in Social Science and Disability (2024). I serve as Deputy Editor for both Society and Mental Health and Sociological Perspectives, and hold editorial board positions with the Journal of Aging and Health, Stigma and Health, and Gender & Society.

My academic leadership experience includes over a decade of chairing graduate and undergraduate programs, along with service on numerous university and professional committees focused on accessibility and inclusion in higher education. I am actively engaged in mentoring the next generation of scholars and practitioners through faculty advisory roles with various student organizations and co-founding the UK Employee Affinity Group on Disability.

Research Interests:
Stigma and discrimination; gender; mental health; disability; health data sciences
Selected Publications:

Brown, Robyn Lewis, and Gabriele Ciciurkaite. 2023. "Precarious Employment during the COVID-19 Pandemic, Disability-Related Discrimination, and Mental Health." Work and Occupations 50 (2): 167-187

Brown, Robyn Lewis, and Gabriele Ciciurkaite. 2022. "Disability, Discrimination, and Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Stress Process Model." Society and Mental Health 12 (3): 215-229

Mauldin, Laura, and Brown, Robyn Lewis. 2022. "Missing Pieces: Engaging Sociology of Disability in Medical Sociology. Journal of Health and Social Behavior62(4), 477-492.

Brown, Robyn Lewis, and Evan J. Batty. 2021. “The Impact of Internalized Stigma on Physical Health Indicators and Health Care Utilization over a Three-Year Period.” Stigma and Health 6(2): 143–150.

Brown, Robyn Lewis, and Gabriele Ciciurkaite. 2021. “The ‘Own’ and the ‘Wise’ Revisited: Physical Disability and Mental Health among Couples.” Journal of Health and Social Behavior 62(2): 170-182.

Brown, Robyn Lewis, and Mairead Eastin Moloney. 2019. “Intersectionality, Work and Well-Being: The Effects of Gender and Disability.” Gender & Society 33(1):94-122.

Brown, Robyn Lewis, Judith A. Richman, Myles Moody, and Kathleen M. Rospenda. 2019. “Post 9/11 Discrimination and Mental Health in the Context of the Great Recession.” Society and Mental Health 9(2): 158-170.

Brown, Robyn Lewis. 2017. “Perceived Stigma, Discrimination and Mental Health among People with Disabilities: The Conditional Effects of Coping Resources.” Stigma and Health 2(2):98-109.

Brown, Robyn Lewis. 2017. “Understanding the Influence of Stigma and Discrimination for the Functional Limitation Severity—Psychological Distress Relationship: A Stress and Coping Perspective.” Social Science Research 62:150-160.

See also: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Robyn-Brown-4