Jessie Ford, PhD

  • Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences

On the web

Profile Headshot

Profile Navigation

Overview

Dr. Jessie Ford is a sociologist whose research explores how expectations and inequalities around gender and sexuality shape sexual health, violence, and pleasure. Dr. Ford's work brings a fresh perspective to sexual health by deploying insights from the sociology of culture and studies of gender inequality. Her current and future research projects explore how micro-level processes combine with meso- or macro-level norms, power differences, or institutional realities to perpetuate social inequality. While her research primarily focuses on the sexual health of young adults in the US, she has also done work on China and Southeast Asia. Dr. Ford completed her MSc in Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and her PhD in Sociology at NYU. At present, Dr. Ford is working on an NIAAA funded K01 study on the high rates of sexual assault associated with hazardous drinking among bisexual women. This research utilizes a series of unique datasets enhanced by mixed methods approaches to understand how factors at the individual-level (e.g., sexual-identity-development), interpersonal-level (e.g., interpersonal discrimination), and structural-level (e.g. social policies targeting bisexual people) work together to create risk for bisexual women. Dr. Ford's work also explores the importance of sexual pleasure-an often overlooked and stigmatized dimension of sexual health and human rights-and advocates for its inclusion in public health policy, program implementation and clinical practice.

Academic Appointments

  • Assistant Professor of Sociomedical Sciences

Credentials & Experience

Education & Training

  • BA, 2007 Brown University
  • MSc, 2011 London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
  • PhD, 2018 New York University

Research

Selected Publications

Ford J, Shah A, Reiss F, Hirsch J. (2025). Missing Pieces: A Critical Review of Research on Forced Marriage and A Call for Family Scientists to Study Forced Marriage. Journal of Family Theory & Review.

Ford J, Coleman E, Banik S. (2025) Learning from gender-diverse thriving among third-gender people in Juchitán, Mexico. International Journal of Transgender Health.

Muschialli L, Ford J, Gonsalves L, Pralat R. (2025) Prevent with Pleasure: A systematic review of HIV public communication campaigns incorporating a pleasure-based approach. PLOS Global Public Health.

Ford J, Dodge B, Clark KA, Lattanner MR, Shah A, Hatzenbuehler ML. (2024) (Re)conceptualizing structural stigma: Insights from a qualitative study of sexual minority men in a longitudinal, population-based cohort. Stigma and Health.

Ford J, Shefner R, Scheer J, Sheehan A, Hughes T. (2024) Associations between gender and sexuality characteristics of cisgender bisexual women and risk of sexual assault. International Journal of Sexual Health.

Ford J, Shah A, Fortuna G, Hirsch JS. Embodied Injustice: (2024) Comparing Lesbian, Bisexual, and Queer Women’s Accounts of Unwanted Sex. Social Currents.

De Oliveira L, Rham-Knigge R, Ford J, (2024) Coleman E, and Mark K. Sexual Boredom Inventory (SBI): Development and initial validation. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy.

Coleman E, Ford J. (2024) A brief history of sexology and lessons learned. Journal of Sexual Medicine. 21(10):835-838.

Bond J, Ford J. (2024) A Call for Sex Positive Epidemiology. American Journal of Epidemiology. kwae054.

Ford J, Coleman E. (2023) Gender diversity, gender liminality in French Polynesia. International Journal of Transgender Health. Dec 2:1-7.

Ford J, Pearlman LR, Feinstein BA. (2023) Bisexuality and Substance Use. Current Sexual Health Reports. 15(3):187-95.