Amy's CV (PDF)

Amy B. Smoyer is an Associate Professor of Social Work at Southern Connecticut State University. Her program of research examines the lived experience of incarceration and the impact of this experience on psycho-social and health outcomes.  Specifically, her work focuses on women's lived experience of incarceration,  women's health issues, food-related wellness, hygiene/toilet justice, and HIV care and prevention.

Amy's current research explores the impact of criminal-legal changes during COVID on the HIV risk behaviors of justice-involved women (NIDA/NIH 1R15DA056285-01). She is also is writing and talking about her interviews with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated women in Alabama about their lived experiences of incarceration.

Amy has published over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Recent publication explore experiences of sexual minority people in women’s correctional facilities, women’s access and use of toilets during and after incarceration, and stigma among incarcerated people living with HIV. 

As a faculty member at SCSU, Amy teaches Research Methods (Fall) and Macro Social Work (Spring). Pre-COVID, she taught one section of the Research Methods course in Manson Youth Institution, a correctional facility for young men in Cheshire, CT, as part of the Inside-Out Prison Exchange Program. Her classroom teaching focuses on interactive group learning and experiential activities. From 2018-2022, Amy coordinated the Department of Social Work’s undergraduate program, and she continues to concentrate her university administrative and service work on undergraduate curriculum, integration of open-access resources (OER), and advising.

Amy has an ongoing partnership with the York Correctional Institution, Connecticut's only prison/jail facility for women and Evergreen Family Services, a community-based program that supports men and women returning to New Haven from prison. She is also an active resident of New Haven's Fair Haven Heights neighborhood.