Alexandra Brewer

Alexandra Brewer is Assistant Professor of Sociology at USC, specializing in medical sociology and healthcare inequalities. Her research examines how organizational constraints in healthcare systems reproduce social disparities, particularly in pain management and gender equity.

Key research streams:

• Opioid prescription practices as organizational tools
• Gender disparities in medical education evaluations
• Fragmented care systems and maternal labor
• Emotional labor avoidance strategies in hospitals

Her ethnographic book project Painful Solutions analyzes how hospitals manage Medicaid constraints through client steering practices. Awards recognize contributions to medical sociology, including studies on how exogenous shocks reshape professional standards and how gender biases emerge during clinical competency assessments.