Amy B Smoyer
Biographic Data
| ID | 639660 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Amy B Smoyer |
| GIVEN NAMES | Amy B |
| FAMILY NAME | Smoyer |
| SIGNATURE | SMOYER A B |
| AFFILIATIONS | Southern Connecticut State University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-6665-5945 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 22 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 78 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 22 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2009 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Teaching Note—Antioppressive Pedagogy in Action: The Undergraduate Research Methods Course
The project of engaging undergraduates in research methods courses is an outstanding challenge for social work educators. Anxiety about the subject is common, for both students and instructors. Further, students’ wariness may reflect historical trauma and their knowledge about the ways in which research has been used to oppress people of color; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual or ally, and other sexual …
Self-Concept Among Formerly Incarcerated Sexual Minority Women
Sexual minority women (SMW) are a resilient yet vulnerable population who may experience poor psychosocial outcomes due to minority stress associated with their marginalized status and traumatic experiences resulting from interpersonal and structural violence. When SMW are incarcerated, the trauma of this experience can exacerbate existing mental health challenges. Self-concept is a key measure of mental health that is associated with increased s…
Negotiating Toilet Access: A Qualitative Exploration of Women's Incarceration
Norms and behaviors about toileting in prison can expand understanding of women's lived experience of incarceration. Knowledge about this subject is significant because access to clean, safe toilets is a human rights issue, and toilet habits can impact social, mental, and physical outcomes. Three focus groups were conducted with 15 incarcerated women about their quotidian prison toilet experiences. While the toilet was physically available, insti…
Stress, Marginalization, and Disruption: A Qualitative Rapid Situational Assessment of Substance Users and HIV Risk in Lebanon
Lebanon is a diverse and dynamic nation of six million people that has experienced considerable disruption for the last two decades. The Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, resulted in the displacement of 1.1 million Syrians to Lebanon. Today, Lebanon is the country with the largest per capita number of refugees in the world. In addition, the country experienced a social, economic, and political crisis in 2019 that destabilized the entire soci…
Nayan Shah, Refusal to Eat: A Century of Prison Hunger Strikes
Healthcare-induced trauma in correctional facilities: A qualitative exploration
Masculine Embodiment Among Sexual Minorities in a Women’s Prison
Sexual minority women are disproportionately incarcerated and more likely to experience structural and interpersonal violence while incarcerated than heterosexual cisgender women. To build knowledge about this population and inform social work practice, theories of embodiment were used to conduct thematic analysis of five interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer masculine-identified people who had been incarcerated in a wome…
Ping-Pong Housing: Women’s Post-Incarceration Trajectories
This study examines the post-incarceration housing experiences of 33 women. Using Residential Timeline Followback methodology, participants were asked to report where they lived at arrest and every location since their release. Follow-up questions asked women to describe these locations, who they lived with, how much they paid, and whether or not they felt safe. Demographic information and criminal justice history were recorded. The data paint a …
Lessons learned from Covid-19: Being known in online social work classrooms
This article presents findings from a survey of undergraduate social work (Bachelor of Social Work [BSW]) students about their experiences with remote learning during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this crisis, remote learning was rapidly implemented and many BSW educators and students experienced online classrooms for the first time. Findings from this study shed light on how remote learning shapes the interpersonal relationships and…
Food in correctional facilities: A scoping review
Hope, Courage, and Resilience in the Lives of Transgender Women of Color
There is a lack of qualitative and strengths-based knowledge about the lived experience of transgender women of color in the US. To address this research gap, a Photovoice project was undertaken with five transgender women living in a small urban area. Thematic analysis of the participants’ discussion of their photographs identified three major themes: hope, courage, and resilience. Analysis suggests a framework for understanding these women’s li…
Hygge: Food and the construction of safety among incarcerated women in Denmark
Stigma, housing and identity after prison
Existing research suggests that individuals who are released from prison face considerable challenges in obtaining access to safe, stable, and affordable places to live and call home. This article draws on repeated qualitative interviews (conducted every 6 months over a period of 3 years) with 44 formerly incarcerated individuals, to understand how these individuals experience the search for a home after their prison release. The interviews show …
Prison Food in Denmark: Normal Responsibility or Ethnocentric Imaginations?
All Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) have incarceration rates below 71 per 100,000 inhabitants, with the notable exception of Greenland. These rates are significantly lower than most developed countries and scholars have associated this trend with the non-punitive ideals associated with the Nordic Welfare Model. Indeed, the Nordic Welfare Model has been historically characterized by social cohesion and a substantial reallocati…
Hungry on the inside: Prison food as concrete and symbolic punishment in a women’s prison
Women’s perceptions of the prison experience and the punishing dimensions of their confinement are under-examined. To expand knowledge in this area, Sexton’s theory of penal consciousness is used to analyze formerly incarcerated women’s narratives about prison food. This analysis builds understanding about the lived experience of incarceration by explicating one dimension of prisoners’ understandings and perceptions of punishment. Women’s narrati…
Being on the Mat: A Process Evaluation of Trauma-Informed Yoga for Women with Substance Use Disorders
Yoga practice is associated with positive health outcomes, including benefits related to managing substance use disorders and trauma symptomology. However, low-income vulnerable communities have limited access to yoga. This process evaluation of a trauma-informed yoga program for women with substance use disorders demonstrates the feasibility and utility of using noncertified yoga instructors to offer a basic yoga in community-based agencies. Par…
It's the Black Girls That Have the Most: Foodways Narratives and the Construction of Race in a Women's Prison
Prison foodways narratives can expand knowledge about cultural beliefs and perceptions of correctional systems. This exploratory analysis, based in qualitative interview data, seeks to initiate dialogue about the ways in which formerly incarcerated women in the US deploy racialized food narratives when describing the acquisition, preparation, and consumption of prison food. The participants’ food narratives construct prison as a non-white space t…
Dealing food: Female drug users’ narratives about food in a prison place and implications for their health
Good and Healthy: Foodways and Construction of Identity in a Women's Prison
The construction of non-criminogenic identities is associated with criminal desistance. This article explores the ways in which women use prison foodways to try to construct positive identities and the impact of correctional policy on these efforts. Formerly-incarcerated women were interviewed about the acquisition, preparation, distribution, and consumption of food in prison. In these narratives, women used their prison food practices in an atte…
Setting the Stage: Creating Study Sites That Promote the Safety and Dignity of Research Participants
Journal Article Setting the Stage: Creating Study Sites That Promote the Safety and Dignity of Research Participants Get access Amy B. Smoyer, Amy B. Smoyer Amy B. Smoyer, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS and Alana Rosenberg, MPH, is a project manager at the Yale School of Public Health. Kim M. Blankenship, PhD, is professor and chair, Department of Sociology, American University. Address cor…
Feeding Relationships: Foodways and Social Networks in a Women’s Prison
Research has demonstrated the importance of supportive relationships and social networks to prisoners’ psychosocial outcomes, especially for women. Understanding how these relationships are constructed, negotiated, and sustained is, therefore, critical for social workers and other professionals who work with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated clients, and/or their family and friends. This article analyzes formerly incarcerated women’s narrati…
Compensation for Incarcerated Research Participants: Diverse State Policies Suggest a New Research Agenda
Research with prisoners is essential to understanding the incarceration experience and creating interventions to mediate its effects on individual and community health. Policies on research involving incarcerated participants can influence the extent to which researchers are able or willing to conduct prison studies. We attempted to collect data on inmate compensation policies from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau o…
Stigma, housing and identity after prison
Existing research suggests that individuals who are released from prison face considerable challenges in obtaining access to safe, stable, and affordable places to live and call home. This article draws on repeated qualitative interviews (conducted every 6 months over a period of 3 years) with 44 formerly incarcerated individuals, to understand how these individuals experience the search for a home after their prison release. The interviews show …
Hungry on the inside: Prison food as concrete and symbolic punishment in a women’s prison
Women’s perceptions of the prison experience and the punishing dimensions of their confinement are under-examined. To expand knowledge in this area, Sexton’s theory of penal consciousness is used to analyze formerly incarcerated women’s narratives about prison food. This analysis builds understanding about the lived experience of incarceration by explicating one dimension of prisoners’ understandings and perceptions of punishment. Women’s narrati…
Lessons learned from Covid-19: Being known in online social work classrooms
This article presents findings from a survey of undergraduate social work (Bachelor of Social Work [BSW]) students about their experiences with remote learning during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this crisis, remote learning was rapidly implemented and many BSW educators and students experienced online classrooms for the first time. Findings from this study shed light on how remote learning shapes the interpersonal relationships and…
Feeding Relationships: Foodways and Social Networks in a Women’s Prison
Research has demonstrated the importance of supportive relationships and social networks to prisoners’ psychosocial outcomes, especially for women. Understanding how these relationships are constructed, negotiated, and sustained is, therefore, critical for social workers and other professionals who work with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated clients, and/or their family and friends. This article analyzes formerly incarcerated women’s narrati…
Masculine Embodiment Among Sexual Minorities in a Women’s Prison
Sexual minority women are disproportionately incarcerated and more likely to experience structural and interpersonal violence while incarcerated than heterosexual cisgender women. To build knowledge about this population and inform social work practice, theories of embodiment were used to conduct thematic analysis of five interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer masculine-identified people who had been incarcerated in a wome…
Compensation for Incarcerated Research Participants: Diverse State Policies Suggest a New Research Agenda
Research with prisoners is essential to understanding the incarceration experience and creating interventions to mediate its effects on individual and community health. Policies on research involving incarcerated participants can influence the extent to which researchers are able or willing to conduct prison studies. We attempted to collect data on inmate compensation policies from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau o…
Ping-Pong Housing: Women’s Post-Incarceration Trajectories
This study examines the post-incarceration housing experiences of 33 women. Using Residential Timeline Followback methodology, participants were asked to report where they lived at arrest and every location since their release. Follow-up questions asked women to describe these locations, who they lived with, how much they paid, and whether or not they felt safe. Demographic information and criminal justice history were recorded. The data paint a …
It's the Black Girls That Have the Most: Foodways Narratives and the Construction of Race in a Women's Prison
Prison foodways narratives can expand knowledge about cultural beliefs and perceptions of correctional systems. This exploratory analysis, based in qualitative interview data, seeks to initiate dialogue about the ways in which formerly incarcerated women in the US deploy racialized food narratives when describing the acquisition, preparation, and consumption of prison food. The participants’ food narratives construct prison as a non-white space t…
Hygge: Food and the construction of safety among incarcerated women in Denmark
Compensation for Incarcerated Research Participants: Diverse State Policies Suggest a New Research Agenda
Research with prisoners is essential to understanding the incarceration experience and creating interventions to mediate its effects on individual and community health. Policies on research involving incarcerated participants can influence the extent to which researchers are able or willing to conduct prison studies. We attempted to collect data on inmate compensation policies from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the Federal Bureau o…
Dealing food: Female drug users’ narratives about food in a prison place and implications for their health
Good and Healthy: Foodways and Construction of Identity in a Women's Prison
The construction of non-criminogenic identities is associated with criminal desistance. This article explores the ways in which women use prison foodways to try to construct positive identities and the impact of correctional policy on these efforts. Formerly-incarcerated women were interviewed about the acquisition, preparation, distribution, and consumption of food in prison. In these narratives, women used their prison food practices in an atte…
Setting the Stage: Creating Study Sites That Promote the Safety and Dignity of Research Participants
Journal Article Setting the Stage: Creating Study Sites That Promote the Safety and Dignity of Research Participants Get access Amy B. Smoyer, Amy B. Smoyer Amy B. Smoyer, PhD, is a postdoctoral fellow at the Yale Center for Interdisciplinary Research on AIDS and Alana Rosenberg, MPH, is a project manager at the Yale School of Public Health. Kim M. Blankenship, PhD, is professor and chair, Department of Sociology, American University. Address cor…
Feeding Relationships: Foodways and Social Networks in a Women’s Prison
Research has demonstrated the importance of supportive relationships and social networks to prisoners’ psychosocial outcomes, especially for women. Understanding how these relationships are constructed, negotiated, and sustained is, therefore, critical for social workers and other professionals who work with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated clients, and/or their family and friends. This article analyzes formerly incarcerated women’s narrati…
It's the Black Girls That Have the Most: Foodways Narratives and the Construction of Race in a Women's Prison
Prison foodways narratives can expand knowledge about cultural beliefs and perceptions of correctional systems. This exploratory analysis, based in qualitative interview data, seeks to initiate dialogue about the ways in which formerly incarcerated women in the US deploy racialized food narratives when describing the acquisition, preparation, and consumption of prison food. The participants’ food narratives construct prison as a non-white space t…
Being on the Mat: A Process Evaluation of Trauma-Informed Yoga for Women with Substance Use Disorders
Yoga practice is associated with positive health outcomes, including benefits related to managing substance use disorders and trauma symptomology. However, low-income vulnerable communities have limited access to yoga. This process evaluation of a trauma-informed yoga program for women with substance use disorders demonstrates the feasibility and utility of using noncertified yoga instructors to offer a basic yoga in community-based agencies. Par…
Prison Food in Denmark: Normal Responsibility or Ethnocentric Imaginations?
All Scandinavian countries (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) have incarceration rates below 71 per 100,000 inhabitants, with the notable exception of Greenland. These rates are significantly lower than most developed countries and scholars have associated this trend with the non-punitive ideals associated with the Nordic Welfare Model. Indeed, the Nordic Welfare Model has been historically characterized by social cohesion and a substantial reallocati…
Hungry on the inside: Prison food as concrete and symbolic punishment in a women’s prison
Women’s perceptions of the prison experience and the punishing dimensions of their confinement are under-examined. To expand knowledge in this area, Sexton’s theory of penal consciousness is used to analyze formerly incarcerated women’s narratives about prison food. This analysis builds understanding about the lived experience of incarceration by explicating one dimension of prisoners’ understandings and perceptions of punishment. Women’s narrati…
Stigma, housing and identity after prison
Existing research suggests that individuals who are released from prison face considerable challenges in obtaining access to safe, stable, and affordable places to live and call home. This article draws on repeated qualitative interviews (conducted every 6 months over a period of 3 years) with 44 formerly incarcerated individuals, to understand how these individuals experience the search for a home after their prison release. The interviews show …
Food in correctional facilities: A scoping review
Hope, Courage, and Resilience in the Lives of Transgender Women of Color
There is a lack of qualitative and strengths-based knowledge about the lived experience of transgender women of color in the US. To address this research gap, a Photovoice project was undertaken with five transgender women living in a small urban area. Thematic analysis of the participants’ discussion of their photographs identified three major themes: hope, courage, and resilience. Analysis suggests a framework for understanding these women’s li…
Hygge: Food and the construction of safety among incarcerated women in Denmark
Ping-Pong Housing: Women’s Post-Incarceration Trajectories
This study examines the post-incarceration housing experiences of 33 women. Using Residential Timeline Followback methodology, participants were asked to report where they lived at arrest and every location since their release. Follow-up questions asked women to describe these locations, who they lived with, how much they paid, and whether or not they felt safe. Demographic information and criminal justice history were recorded. The data paint a …
Lessons learned from Covid-19: Being known in online social work classrooms
This article presents findings from a survey of undergraduate social work (Bachelor of Social Work [BSW]) students about their experiences with remote learning during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. In response to this crisis, remote learning was rapidly implemented and many BSW educators and students experienced online classrooms for the first time. Findings from this study shed light on how remote learning shapes the interpersonal relationships and…
Healthcare-induced trauma in correctional facilities: A qualitative exploration
Masculine Embodiment Among Sexual Minorities in a Women’s Prison
Sexual minority women are disproportionately incarcerated and more likely to experience structural and interpersonal violence while incarcerated than heterosexual cisgender women. To build knowledge about this population and inform social work practice, theories of embodiment were used to conduct thematic analysis of five interviews with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer masculine-identified people who had been incarcerated in a wome…
Stress, Marginalization, and Disruption: A Qualitative Rapid Situational Assessment of Substance Users and HIV Risk in Lebanon
Lebanon is a diverse and dynamic nation of six million people that has experienced considerable disruption for the last two decades. The Syrian Civil War, which began in 2011, resulted in the displacement of 1.1 million Syrians to Lebanon. Today, Lebanon is the country with the largest per capita number of refugees in the world. In addition, the country experienced a social, economic, and political crisis in 2019 that destabilized the entire soci…
Nayan Shah, Refusal to Eat: A Century of Prison Hunger Strikes
Negotiating Toilet Access: A Qualitative Exploration of Women's Incarceration
Norms and behaviors about toileting in prison can expand understanding of women's lived experience of incarceration. Knowledge about this subject is significant because access to clean, safe toilets is a human rights issue, and toilet habits can impact social, mental, and physical outcomes. Three focus groups were conducted with 15 incarcerated women about their quotidian prison toilet experiences. While the toilet was physically available, insti…
Teaching Note—Antioppressive Pedagogy in Action: The Undergraduate Research Methods Course
The project of engaging undergraduates in research methods courses is an outstanding challenge for social work educators. Anxiety about the subject is common, for both students and instructors. Further, students’ wariness may reflect historical trauma and their knowledge about the ways in which research has been used to oppress people of color; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual or ally, and other sexual …
Self-Concept Among Formerly Incarcerated Sexual Minority Women
Sexual minority women (SMW) are a resilient yet vulnerable population who may experience poor psychosocial outcomes due to minority stress associated with their marginalized status and traumatic experiences resulting from interpersonal and structural violence. When SMW are incarcerated, the trauma of this experience can exacerbate existing mental health challenges. Self-concept is a key measure of mental health that is associated with increased s…
Psychology (20 works) · Sociology (18 works) · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis (16 works) · Political science (15 works) · Criminology (14 works) · Prison (13 works) · Homelessness and Social Issues (12 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Narrative (8 works) · Social Psychology (8 works)