Jessica Ford

Jessica Ford

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Eligible to supervise Masters and PhD - email supervisor to discuss availability.

Dr Jessica Ford is a feminist media studies scholar who specialises in how, when and why feminism happens on television. Prior to moving to Adelaide, Jessica was a Lecturer in Screen and Cultural Studies at The University of Newcastle (2019-2023) and completed her PhD in Film and Media Studies at the University of New South Wales in 2017.

Jessica writes about a wide range of television series, including Girls, Orange is the New Black, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and Better Things, publishing in academic journals, such as Feminist Media Studies and The Journal of Popular Culture, as well as academic anthologies and in journalistic outlets. She is working on a monograph about how feminism operates a sensibility in contemporary television market.

My research interests include: 

  • Contemporary media feminisms
  • Women and gender on screen
  • Popular culture
  • Gender and popular music
  • Film and TV musicals 
  • Theorisations of labour
  • Affect, aesthetics and politics
  • Taste and value cultures

  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2022 Macrossan, P., & Ford, J. (2022). Duets and the Demands of Country Music: Contradictory Feminisms in Nashville. Journal of Popular Culture, 55(2), 350-372.
    DOI
    2021 Ford, J., & Boyle, A. (2021). The Emotional Detective: Gender, violence and the post-forensic TV crime drama. MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture, 7.
    2020 Ford, J., Ison, J., McKenzie, L., Cannizzo, F., Mayhew, L. R., Osborne, N., & Cooke, B. (2020). What ongoing staff can do to support precariously employed colleagues the Academic Precariat. Australian Universities Review, 62(1), 57-62.
    Scopus4
    2019 Ford, J. (2019). Women’s indie television: the intimate feminism of women-centric dramedies. Feminist Media Studies, 19(7), 928-943.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS4
    2019 Ford, J., & Macrossan, P. (2019). The musical number as feminist intervention in Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 8(1), 55-69.
    DOI Scopus4
    2019 Ford, J. (2019). BOOK REVIEW: The Netflix Effect: Technology and Entertainment in the 21st Century, Kevin McDonald and Daniel Smith-Rowsey (eds) (2016). Journal of Digital Media and Policy, 10(1), 127-129.
    DOI
    2018 Ford, J. (2018). Feminist cinematic television: Authorship, aesthetics and gender in Pamela Adlon’s Better Things. Fusion Journal, 14.
    2016 Ford, J. (2016). The “smart” body politics of Lena Dunham’s Girls. Feminist Media Studies, 16(6), 1029-1042.
    DOI Scopus17 WoS10
    - Ford, J. (n.d.). Rebooting Roseanne: Feminist Voice across Decades. M/C Journal, 21(5).
    DOI

  • Book Chapters
    Year Citation
    2022 Ford, J. (2022). Gender, Violence and Empowerment: Reworking the Female Action Hero in <i>Dollhouse</i>. In Gender and Action Films (pp. 47-57). Emerald Publishing Limited.
    DOI
    2022 Ford, J., & Zeller-Jacques, M. (2022). You Can’t Go Home Again: The Recuperative Reboot and the Trump Era Sitcom. In K. McNally (Ed.), American Television During a Television Presidency (pp. 275-290). USA.
    2022 Ford, J. (2022). Orange is the New Black, Wentworth and contemporary media feminisms: Systemic inequality and individual responsibility. In TV Transformations and Transgressive Women: From Prisoner: Cell Block H to Wentworth (pp. 193-209).
    Scopus2
    2021 Ford, J. (2021). Women’s indie television: the intimate feminism of women-centric dramedies. In Independent Women (pp. 10-25). Routledge.
    DOI
    2020 Ford, J. (2020). At the fringes of TV: Liminality and privilege in Netflix's original scripted dramedy series. In Netflix at the Nexus: Content, Practice, and Production in the Age of Streaming Television (pp. 97-112). Peter Lang US.
    DOI Scopus1
    2020 Ford, J. (2020). Popular feminism and television stardom in Hallmark’s original made-for-television movies. In E. L. Newman, & E. Witsell (Eds.), The Hallmark Channel Essays on Faith, Race and Feminism (pp. 32-49). McFarland.
    2020 The Palgrave Handbook of Incarceration in Popular Culture (2020). Springer International Publishing.
    DOI
    2020 Ford, J. (2020). Can prison be a feminist space?: Interrogating television representations of women’s prisons. In The Palgrave Handbook of Incarceration in Popular Culture (pp. 613-626). Springer International Publishing.
    DOI
    2018 Ford, J. (2018). Negotiating creative feminine labor on family television: Are Jane By Design and Bunheads riding a new feminist wave?. In E. L. Newman, & E. Witsell (Eds.), ABC Family to Freeform TV Essays on the Millennial-Focused Network and Its Programs (pp. 48-98). McFarland.
    2014 Ford, J. (2014). Feminist and postfeminist discourses: Reading the Britta problem. In A. -G. Lee (Ed.), A Sense of Community Essays on the Television Series and Its Fandom (pp. 82-97). McFarland.
    2012 Ford, J. (2012). Coming out of the broom closet: Willow’s sexuality and empowerment in Buffy. In M. A. Money (Ed.), Joss Whedon: The Complete Companion The TV Series, the Movies, the Comic Books, and More (pp. 93-102). National Geographic Books.

  • Conference Papers
    Year Citation
    2023 Ford, J. (2023). Affect, feminism and television: HBO’s Sharp Objects. In Gender, Sex and Sexuality Conference. UniSA.
    2023 Ford, J. (2023). Trauma, violence and the affective feminism of HBO’s Sharp Objects. In Society for Cinema and Media Studies Conference. Denver, CO, United States.
    2019 Ford, J. (2019). Tele-feminist authorship in the age of popular feminisms. In Cine-feminisms and the Academy Symposium. UNSW Sydney, Australia.

  • Internet Publications
    Year Citation
    2023 Ford, J. (2023). More than mumblecore and bigger than Barbie – who is Greta Gerwig?. The Conversation.
    2023 Ford, J. (2023). Trying to fix TV’s past: Beyond the ‘woke’ reboot. CST Online.
    2020 Ford, J., & Macrossan, P. (2020). Friday Essay: Clueless at 25 – Like, a totally important teen film.
    2020 Ford, J. (2020). My best worst film: She’s The Man – Amanda Bynes shines in a hilarious commentary on gender. The Conversation.
    2019 Ford, J., & Macrossan, P. (2019). The Real Dirty Dancing reduces a political film to little more than coy dance numbers. The Conversation.
  • 2022: College of Human and Social Futures New Start Award, University of Newcastle ($5000)
  • 2020: Gender Research Network, City Lights for Social Change project, funded through City of Newcastle Special Business Rate scheme ($87 280)
  • 2020: Program in Gender-Based Violence, funded through FEDUA Research Programs Pilot, University of Newcastle ($70 000)
  • 2020: Gender Research Network, funded through FEDUA Strategic Networks and Pilot Projects, University of Newcastle ($2000)
  • 2019:Finish that Output scheme, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Newcastle ($1500)
  • 2018: Sydney Screen Studies Network: Screen Theory/Screen Practice, funded through School of the Arts & Media Research Culture Scheme, UNSW ($4000)
  • 2017: Named CI, Sydney Screen Studies Network: Intersections in Film and Media Studies, funded through School of the Arts & Media Research Culture Scheme, UNSW ($2000)
  • 2016: Sydney Screen Studies Network: Screen Studies: Politics, Ideology, Philosophy, funded through School of the Arts & Media Research Culture Scheme, UNSW ($2000)
  • 2013-15: Australian Postgraduate Award, UNSW
  • 2015: Sydney Screen Studies Network: Screen Studies: Form, Genre, Aesthetics, funded through School of the Arts & Media Research Culture Scheme, UNSW ($2000)
  • 2014: International Student Travel Grant to attend Console-ing Passions International Conference on Television, Video, Audio, New Media (US$500)
  • MDIA3336 The Digital Image (formerly Photography)
  • MDIA1002 Key Concepts in Media (from 2024)

  • Memberships
    Date Role Membership Country
    2023 - ongoing Member Society for Cinema and Media Studies United States
    2016 - ongoing Member Screen Studies Association of Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand Australia
    2012 - ongoing Member Australian Women and Gender Studies Association Australia

  • Editorial Boards
    Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
    2018 - ongoing Board Member MAI: Feminism and Visual Culture MAI Collective Sweden

  • Presentation
    Date Topic Presented at Institution Country
    2023 - ongoing American Feminist TV: From The Good Wife to The Handmaid’s Tale Media Department University of British Columbia Canada
    2023 - ongoing Reproductive Rights on Screen IU Cinema Indiana University, Bloomington United States
    2021 - ongoing Can Prison be a Feminist Space? Interrogating TV Representations of Women in Prison DEMOSERIES Seminar Series on Security TV (ECR Advanced Grant) University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne France

  • Review, Assessment, Editorial and Advice
    Date Title Type Institution Country
    2022 - ongoing Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society Peer Review Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society United States
    2021 - ongoing New Review of Film and Television Studies Peer Review New Review of Film and Television Studies United States
    2021 - ongoing Popular Communication Peer Review Popular Communication United States
    2020 - ongoing Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies Peer Review Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies United Kingdom
    2020 - ongoing Edinburgh University Press Peer Review Edinburgh University Press United Kingdom
    2019 - ongoing Feminist Media Studies Peer Review Feminist Media Studies -
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