RESEARCH & SCHOLARSHIP
Since 2011, I have worked as a counseling psychology professor at Columbia University. My research and scholarship on minority stress and marginalization is instrumental to my work as both a psychotherapist and an interdisciplinary artist.
identityLORE
I work with a truly incredible group of student and faculty collaborators on my research team, identityLORE. Check out their bios and our current projects and interests by clicking here.
Selected publications
For my full academic CV, please click here.
Brewster, M. E., & Snow, O. (2022). Childfree Minority Stress: Considerations for Life at the Margins of Adulthood. In D. Thornley (Ed.), Childfree across the disciplines. Rutgers University Press.
Brewster, M. E., & Lopez-Molina, D. A. (2021). Centering matrices of domination: Steps toward a more intersectional vocational psychology. Journal of Career Assessment, 29(4), 547-569.
Brewster, M. E., Velez, B. L., Geiger, E., & Sawyer, J. S. (2020). It’s like herding cats: Atheist minority stress, group involvement, and psychological outcomes. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 67(1), 1-13.
Brewster, M. E., Soderstrom, B., Esposito, J. Breslow, A., Geiger, E., Caso, T., Arango, S., Foster, A., Sandil, R., Morshedian, N., Sawyer, J., & Cheng, J. (2017). A content analysis of scholarship on consensual nonmonogamies: Methodological roadmaps, current themes, and directions for future research. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 6(1), 32-47.
Brewster, M. E., Hammer, J., Sawyer, J., Eklund, A., & Palamar, J. (2016). Perceived experiences of atheist discrimination: Instrument development and evaluation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(5), 557-570.
Brewster, M. E., Velez, B. L., Foster, A., Esposito, J., Robinson, M. A. (2016) Minority stress and the moderating role of religious coping among religious and spiritual sexual minority individuals. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 63(1), 119-126.
Brewster, M. E., Moradi, B., DeBlaere, C., & Velez, B.L. (2013). Navigating the borderlands: Cognitive flexibility, bicultural self-efficacy, and minority stress in the lives of bisexual individuals. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 60(4), 543-556.
Brewster, M. E., & Moradi, B. (2010). Perceived anti-bisexual prejudice experiences: Scale development and evaluation. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 57(4), 451-468.
This collection features more than two dozen narratives by atheists from different backgrounds across the United States. Ranging in age, race, sexual orientation, and religious upbringing, these individuals address deconversion, community building, parenting, and romantic relationships, providing a nuanced look at living without a god in a predominantly Christian nation.
These narratives illuminate the complexities and consequences for nonbelievers in the United States. Stepping away from religious belief can have serious social and existential ramifications, forcing atheists to discover new ways to live meaningfully without a religious community. Yet shedding the constraints of a formal belief system can also be a freeing experience. Ultimately, this volume shows that claiming an atheist identity is anything but an act isolated from the other dimensions of the self. Upending common social, political, and psychological assumptions about atheists, this collection helps carve out a more accepted space for this minority within American society