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Jessica Ford

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Lecturer in Film, Media and Cultural Studies, University of Newcastle

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)
  • Association of Cultural Studies

Research Areas

  • Film And Television (190204)
  • Film, Television And Digital Media (1902)
  • Visual Cultures (190104)
  • Culture, Gender, Sexuality (200205)
  • Gender Specific Studies (169901)
  • Cinema Studies (190201)