Dr Rowan Sweeney
Lecturer in Criminology and Sociology
Department of Social SciencesGlasgow School for Business and Society
Rowan is a Lecturer in criminology and sociology in the Department of Social Sciences. Rowan joined GCU in 2025, having previously been a Lecturer in criminology at the University of Gloucestershire. Prior to this, she held teaching and research positions at York St John University and Northumbria University. She was awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy in 2021.
Rowan completed her PhD in criminology in 2023 at York St John University, which examined the production and exclusion of restorative justice knowledge(s) in criminology. Prior to that, she completed a BA (Hons) Criminology and Politics at the University of Stirling in 2017, and an MSc Applied Social Research also at the University of Stirling in 2018.
Rowan’s research focuses on responses to harm, power, in/justice, anti/discrimination, and the production of knowledge(s). Her research interests include restorative justice, restorative practice, knowledge production, intersectionality, decolonisation, and pedagogy.
She conducts research regarding the use of restorative justice and restorative practice in community settings and criminal justice settings. She is also involved in ongoing collaborative research focused on decolonisation, anti-discrimination, and intersectionality, in the context of knowledge production, pedagogy and academic institutions.
Rowan is the Director of the international Restorative Justice Pedagogy Network (RJPN) and co-leads the European Restorative Universities Network (ERUN).
Rowan is a member of the European Forum for Restorative Justice, the British Society of Criminology, and the British Sociological Association.