Dr. Leigh-Ann Sweeney

Biography

Dr Leigh-Ann Sweeney is a social work academic, researcher, and registered CORU social worker. Dr Sweeney is Course Director of the Bachelor in Social Studies (Social Work) at Trinity College Dublin, where she teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate social work programmes and supervises Master's and PhD researchers.
Dr Sweeney`s research examines how gender, power, structural inequality, and social policy shape individual and collective experiences, with particular expertise in sex work, feminist social work, and sexual and reproductive health. Drawing together perspectives from social work, health promotion, sociology, philosophy, and feminist scholarship, her work challenges individualised explanations of social problems and foregrounds the structural conditions through which inequality, marginalisation, and disadvantage are produced and sustained.
Dr Sweeney has published widely in peer-reviewed journals and scholarly collections, produced commissioned research reports, contributed to funded research collaborations, and presented her work internationally. Her scholarship has contributed to national and international debates concerning sex work, gender inequality, structural oppression, victim-blaming, and feminist approaches to social work education and practice. A central concern across her work is strengthening the relationship between research, policy, professional practice, and the lived experiences of communities affected by inequality.
Dr Sweeney is co-founder and board member of the Irish Sex Work Research Network, through which she has helped advance interdisciplinary research, knowledge exchange, and evidence-informed dialogue on sex work, policy, and gender equality. Within Trinity College Dublin, she has co-chaired the Athena Swan Committee in the School of Social Work and Social Policy and serves on the School Research Ethics Committee, contributing to wider institutional work on equality, research integrity, and inclusive academic practice.
Prior to joining Trinity, Dr Sweeney was Lecturer Above the Bar in Social Work at Atlantic Technological University (formerly the Institute of Technology, Sligo), where she contributed to the development and delivery of the first Master of Social Work programme within Ireland's Institute of Technology sector. Her academic work is informed by extensive professional practice experience across medical social work, probation services, children in care, and family support.
Dr Sweeney holds a PhD from the School of Medicine and Health Sciences and a Master of Social Work from the School of Political Science and Sociology at the University of Galway. Following her doctorate, she undertook postdoctoral research across Psychology and Medicine and Health Sciences within the Health Promotion Research Centre. Her academic journey began as a mature student with a Certificate in Women's Studies at University College Dublin, an experience that established the feminist and social justice perspectives that continue to underpin her research, teaching, and professional practice.
Across her research, teaching, leadership, and mentorship, Dr Sweeney is committed to advancing critical, feminist, and socially just approaches to social work and to producing scholarship that connects academic knowledge with policy, practice, and meaningful social change.