Dr Jessica Ford is a Lecturer in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia. Jessica is a co-founder of the Sydney Screen Studies Network and a Contributing Editor of MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture.
Jessica's research explores how, when and why feminism happens on screen. “What is feminism” is constantly open to interpretation and negotiation, and television is a key site for this negotiation. In the wake of the Harvey Weinstein scandal this is of increased interest, because many television series, like The Handmaid’s Tale, that have responded to the #MeToo movement.
She has published on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Roseanne, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Girls.
Experience
2018–present
Lecturer, University of Newcastle
2012–2017
Sessional Tutor, UNSW
2012–2017
PhD Candidate, UNSW
2015–2015
Postgraduate Teaching Fellow, UNSW
Education
2017
UNSW, PhD
2010
University of Newcastle, Bachelor of Arts (Hons)
Publications
2020
Popular feminism and television stardom in Hallmark’s original made-for-television movies, The Hallmark Channel: Essays on Faith, Race and Feminism, eds. Emily L. Newman & Emily Witsell. (McFarland)
2020
Can prison be a feminist space?: Interrogating television representations of women’s prisons, The Palgrave Handbook of Incarceration in Popular Culture, eds. Marcus Harmes, Meredith Harmes and Barbara Harmes (Palgrave)
2019
The musical number as feminist intervention in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend (co-author: Phoebe Macrossan), Australasian Journal of Popular Culture (8.1)
2018
Smuggling Feminism into Family TV: Are Jane by Design and Bunheads riding a new feminist wave?, ABC Family Anthology. Eds. by Emily L. Newman and Emily Witsell (McFarland & Co.)
2018
Feminist cinematic television: Authorship, aesthetics and gender in Pamela Adlon’s Better Things, fusion journal (14)
2018
Rebooting Roseanne: Feminist voice across decades., M/C Journal (21.5)
2016
The "smart" body politics of Lena Dunham's Girls, Feminist Media Studies (16.4)
2014
Feminist and Postfeminist Discourses: Reading the Britta Problem, A Sense of Community: Essays on the Television Series & its Fandom. Ed. Ann-Gee Lee (McFarland & Co, Inc)
2012
Coming Out of the Broom Closet: Willow's Sexuality and Empowerment in Buffy, The Joss Whedon Companion. Ed. Mary Alice Money (Titan Books)
Professional Memberships
Sydney Screen Studies Network
Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand
Australian Women's and Gender Studies Association (AWGSA)