Research & Publications
Dr. Ford explores the intersection of moral theology, queer theology/queer theory, and Black studies — pushing the boundaries of the Catholic moral imagination.
Current Book Project
Forthcoming · Fortress Press
Works of Art: Gender and Sexuality in Liberative Natural Law Perspective
This book reimagines natural law frameworks through an intersectional lens, constructing a liberative theology of gender and sexuality that takes seriously the lived experiences of LGBTQ people, especially those at the intersection of race, gender, and sexuality within the Catholic tradition.
Award-Winning Scholarship
2022 · Catholic Theological Society of America
Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award — Best Essay by a Young Scholar
Awarded for the essay "Our New Galileo Affair", published in Horizons (December 2023), and celebrated as the best essay by a young scholar from the largest professional society of theologians in the world.
Read the Essay →Selected Academic Publications
Peer-reviewed essays, book chapters, and journal articles in moral theology, queer theory, and Black studies.
"A Sketch of a Liberative Natural Law Anthropology"
In What It Means to be Human. Ed. Elsie M. Miranda and Cristina Traina. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press. Forthcoming.
"Transgender Bodies, Catholic Schools, and a Queer Natural Law Theology of Exploration"
Updated and Reprinted. In Trans Life and the Catholic Church Today. Ed. Nicolete Burbach and Lisa Sowle Cahill, 303–335. New York, NY: T&T Clark, 2024. (Originally published in Journal of Moral Theology, 2018.)
"Virtue Ethics and Moral Knowledge in a Racist and Hetero/Sexist World"
In Bothering to Love: James F. Keenan's Retrieval and Reinvention of Catholic Ethics. Ed. Kate Ward and Christopher Vogt, 197–210. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Press, 2024.
"Natural Law in Catholic Family Teaching"
In Catholic Family Teaching: Commentaries and Interpretations. Ed. Jacob M. Kohlhass and Mary M. Doyle Roche, 20–28. Washington DC: Georgetown University Press, 2024.
"Our New Galileo Affair"
Horizons vol. 50, no. 2 (December 2023): 255–292. Winner of the 2022 Catherine Mowry LaCugna Award.
View Publication →"Black Queer Natural Law: On Brownness and Disidentification"
Political Theology Network.
View Publication →Popular & Public Writing
A "publicly engaged scholar," Dr. Ford publishes in Commonweal, National Catholic Reporter, Conscience—Catholics for Choice, Outreach: A LGBTQ Catholic Resource, and Conversations on Jesuit Higher Education.
"When Catholic Colleges Cut Theology Majors, What Happens to Catholic Identity?"
"What Difference Does It Make? Staying Catholic Despite the Political Face of U.S. Catholicism"
"Engaging Homosexuality and Transgender Identity Through an African-American Catholic Lens"
Visit Publication →"What Does It Mean to Welcome LGBTQ People into Catholic Communities?"
Visit Publication →"New Anti-Trans Policies Move Church Away from Vital Core Teachings"
"US Bishops' Theology is the True Scandal in Philadelphia Foster Care Case"
Visit Publication →View Full Profile
For a complete list of publications, teaching, and speaking engagements, visit Dr. Ford's official faculty profile at Candler School of Theology.