Prudence Black

Dr Prudence Black

Titleholder

School of Humanities

Faculty of Arts, Business, Law and Economics

Dr Prudence Black is a Research Fellow in the School of Humanities at the University of Adelaide and a Research Associate in the Department of Gender and Cultural Studies at the University of Sydney.

Her current academic research includes an interview-based project with incarcerated women and their preparation for court appearances, and a study of intergenerational knowledge and the Australian wool industry. She is a Primary Investigator on the ARC Linkage project, Heritage of the Air: How Aviation Transformed Australia. Her research relating to aviation cultures has resulted in two books, The Flight Attendant’s Shoe, a design history of the flight attendants’ uniforms and her most recent book Smile, Particularly in Bad Weather: The Era of the Australian Airline Hostess which outlines the development and the history of the flight attendant profession in Australia.

As well as her academic roles, she has worked at the Powerhouse Museum and the Australian Museum undertaking curatorial work and research for exhibitions about fashion, design and Indigenous culture. Prudence also undertakes research consultancies for corporate histories.

Fields: Aviation Cultures, Fashion, Uniforms, Women and Workplace Culture

Recent Books:

Smile, Particularly in Bad Weather: The Era of the Australian Airline Hostess, UWA Press, 2017

The Flight Attendant's Shoe, NewSouth Books, 2011

  • Journals
    Year Citation
    2024 Norman, J., Potter, E., Harrop, L., Treagus, M., Black, P., & Muecke, S. (2024). Mapping Shadows of the Bight: a road trip residency. Continuum, 23 pages.
    DOI Scopus1
    2021 Black, P. (2021). Foreword. Fashion, Women and Power: The Politics of Dress, ix-xv.
    2021 van den Broek, D., Black, P., & Nicki. (2021). Doing Double Time: Women, Incarceration and Employment Discrimination (April, 10.1177/0950017021995662, 2021). WORK EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIETY, 37(4), 1119.
    DOI
    2021 van den Broek, D., Black, P., & Nicki. (2021). Doing Double Time: Women, Incarceration and Employment Discrimination. Work, Employment and Society, 35(5), 968-978.
    DOI Scopus4 WoS1
    2019 Black, P. (2019). Corrections. Cultural Studies Review, 25(2), 211-213.
    DOI
    2018 Healy, C., Schlunke, K., Black, P., Muecke, S., & Driscoll, C. (2018). Meaghan. Cultural Studies Review, 24(1), 1-4.
    DOI
    2016 Black, P. (2016). The Economy of Persistence Mario the Tailor. CULTURAL STUDIES REVIEW, 22(1), 10-31.
    DOI
    2016 Black, P., & Findlay, R. (2016). Dressing the Body Introduction. CULTURAL STUDIES REVIEW, 22(1), 4-9.
    DOI WoS1
    2014 Black, P., & Shera, P. A. (2014). STAINED EVIDENCE: BLOOD, SEMEN AND MATTER ON THE CLOTHES OF KENNEDY, LEWINSKY, AND MARGIELA. AUSTRALIAN FEMINIST LAW JOURNAL, 40(1), 135-146.
    DOI WoS1
    2014 Black, P., Carter, M., de Perthuis, K., & Gill, A. (2014). What lies beneath? Thoughts on men’s underpants. Critical Studies in Men's Fashion, 1(2), 133-145.
    DOI
    2014 Black, P., & Van Den Broek, D. (2014). Tracksuit or business suit: What should a woman wear coming out of prison?. Continuum, 28(6), 787-796.
    DOI Scopus1 WoS1
    2014 Black, P., & Driscoll, C. (2014). Editorial. Continuum, 28(6), 749-750.
    DOI
    2013 Black, P., Allon, F., Driscoll, C., Probyn, E., Race, K., & Redden, G. (2013). Editorial introduction. Inter-Asia Cultural Studies, 14(3), 427-431.
    DOI WoS1
    2013 Black, P. (2013). Lines of flight: The female flight attendant uniform. Fashion Theory - Journal of Dress Body and Culture, 17(2), 179-196.
    DOI Scopus9 WoS5
    2013 Black, P. (2013). designed to death: Tom Ford's <i>A Single Man</i>. FILM FASHION & CONSUMPTION, 2(1), 105-114.
    DOI
    2013 Black, P., & Idle, J. (2013). 'It was just something you did': Mothers, daughters and sewing in the 1960s. CLOTHING CULTURES, 1(1), 23-44.
    DOI WoS3
    2012 Black, P., & Driscoll, C. (2012). Don, Betty and Jackie Kennedy On <i>Mad Men</i> and Periodisation. CULTURAL STUDIES REVIEW, 18(2), 188-206.
    DOI WoS5
    2011 Black, P., & Driscoll, C. (2011). Strapped to the drainpipe: Emma Peel and the vinyl catsuit. Australasian Journal of Popular Culture, 1(1), 67-76.
    DOI
    2009 Craik, J., & Black, P. (2009). Australian Fashion Perspectives. FASHION THEORY-THE JOURNAL OF DRESS BODY & CULTURE, 13(4), 405-408.
    DOI WoS1
    - Black, P. (n.d.). The Economy of Persistence: Mario the Tailor. Cultural Studies Review, 22(1).
    DOI

  • Books
    Year Citation
    2017 Black, P. (2017). Smile, Particularly in Bad Weather The Era of the Australian Airline Hostess (Vol. 41). Western Australia, Australia: UWA Publishing.
    DOI
    2011 Black, P. (2011). The Flight Attendant's Shoe. UNSW Press.

  • Book Chapters
    Year Citation
    2024 Black, P., & Muecke, S. (2024). Westernmost: Remoteness and Proximity in South Australia. In Proximity as Method: Concepts for Coexistence in the Global past and Present (pp. 225-230). Routledge India.
    DOI
    2019 Black, P. (2019). A Cast of Thousands: Martin Grant and the New Qantas Uniform. In Uniform: Clothing and Discipline in the Modern World (pp. 179-197).
    Scopus1
    2019 Black, P. S. (2019). A Cast of Thousands: Martin Grant and the Qantas Uniform. In J. Tynan, & L. Godson (Eds.), Uniform: Clothing and Discipline in a Modern World (pp. 226-250). London, United Kingdom: Bloomsbury.
    DOI
    2017 Black, P. (2017). MAD MEN. In The American Middle Class: An Economic Encyclopedia of Progress and Poverty: Volume 1-2 (Vol. 2, pp. 955-956).
    2016 Black, P., & de Perthuis, K. (2016). Postwar hollywood, 1947-1967. In A. L. McLean (Ed.), Costume, Makeup, and Hair (pp. 75-98). USA: Rutgers University Press.
    Scopus1
    2014 Black, P. (2014). The discipline of appearance: Military style and Australian flight hostess uniforms 1930–1964. In D. N. Rall (Ed.), Fashion and War in Popular Culture (pp. 91-105). UK & USA: Intellect Ltd.
    Scopus3
    2012 Black, P., & Muecke, S. (2012). The power of a dress: The rhetoric of a moment in fashion. In Rebirth of Rhetoric (pp. 212-227). Routledge.
    DOI
    2010 Black, P., & Muecke, S. (2010). Antipodean Modernisms: Australia and New Zealand. In The Oxford Handbook of Modernisms. Oxford University Press.
    DOI Scopus1

  • Conference Papers
    Year Citation
    2009 Black, P. (2009). The detail: Setting fashion systems in motion. In Fashion Theory - Journal of Dress Body and Culture Vol. 13 (pp. 499-510). ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD.
    DOI Scopus10 WoS8

  • Current Higher Degree by Research Supervision (University of Adelaide)
    Date Role Research Topic Program Degree Type Student Load Student Name
    2022 Co-Supervisor Detecting Dress: Mrs-Annie Bowman's Garments: A Cultural History of Dress in Colonial Adelaide Doctor of Philosophy Doctorate Part Time Ms Kathryn Needs

  • Other Supervision Activities
    Date Role Research Topic Location Program Supervision Type Student Load Student Name
    2013 - 2016 Co-Supervisor Fancy Dress Practice in Australia University of Sydney - Master Part Time Helen Walters
    2012 - 2103 Principal Supervisor Trust and Digital Social Networks University of Sydney - Honours Full Time Terresa Parish
    2012 - 2103 Principal Supervisor “Tits or GTFO”: Hegemonic Masculinity and the Construction of the Gamer’ University of Syndey - Honours Full Time Olivia Barlow
    2012 - 2016 Co-Supervisor Obsession with Brilliance: Masculinities and Creativity in Transnational Advertising University of Sydney - Doctorate Part Time Paul Priday
    2012 - 2014 Principal Supervisor Fashion Blogging: Ethics and Aesthetic University of Sydney - Master Full Time Rachel Cole
    2012 - 2013 Principal Supervisor Making Community: Leichhardt Wanderers Junior Rugby League Club, 1918-1968 University of Sydney - Master Part Time Julie Nebauer
    2011 - 2016 Other The Maternal Body in Contemporary Culture Kings College, London - Doctorate Full Time Sara de Benidictis

  • Memberships
    Date Role Membership Country
    2016 - ongoing Member Hawke EU Centre: Aeromobilities Network, University of South Australia. Australia
    2014 - ongoing Member Global Aviation Research Network (GARN), Macquarie University Australia
    2014 - ongoing Member Gender and Modernity Group, Sydney University. Australia
    2011 - ongoing Member Australian Fashion Studies Network. Australia
    2008 - 2009 Board Member Academic Board, Global Campus Management Pty Ltd Australia

  • Editorial Boards
    Date Role Editorial Board Name Institution Country
    2020 - ongoing Board Member Cultures of the Commonwealth : essays and studies Université Sorbonne Nouvelle Paris 3 France
    2018 - ongoing Board Member Palgrave Series of Fashion and the Body Palgrave United Kingdom
    2010 - ongoing Board Member The Australasian Journal of Popular Culture Intellect United Kingdom
    2010 - ongoing Associate Editor Film, Fashion and Consumption Intellect United Kingdom

  • Offices Held
    Date Office Name Institution Country
    2018 - ongoing Deputy Director Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender Australia
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