Dr Prudence Black
Titleholder
School of Humanities
College of Creative Arts, Design and Humanities
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
| Date | Position | Institution name |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 - 2019 | Lecturer | University of Adelaide, Adelaide |
| 2017 - 2024 | Research Associate | University of Sydney, Sydney |
| Date | Institution name | Country | Title |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2009 | University of Sydney, Sydney | Australia | PhD |
| Year | Citation |
|---|---|
| 2025 | Barclay, K., Moore, V., Papadelos, P., & Black, P. (2025). Australian academic women and promotion since 1975: patriarchal equilibrium?. Women's History Review, 1-26. |
| 2025 | Black, P., Moore, V., & Barclay, K. (2025). Leaving the Institution: Academic Women and Retirement. Australian Feminist Studies, 39(121), 1-17. |
| 2025 | Norman, J., Potter, E., Harrop, L., Treagus, M., Black, P., & Muecke, S. (2025). Mapping Shadows of the Bight: a road trip residency. Continuum, 39(1), 161-183. Scopus2 WoS1 |
| 2023 | van den Broek, D., Black, P., & Nicki. (2023). Doing Double Time: Women, Incarceration and Employment Discrimination (April, 10.1177/0950017021995662, 2021). WORK EMPLOYMENT AND SOCIETY, 37(4), 1119. |
| 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. Scopus5 WoS4 |
| 2021 | Black, P. (2021). Foreword. Fashion Women and Power the Politics of Dress, ix-xv. |
| 2019 | Black, P. (2019). Corrections. Cultural Studies Review, 25(2), 211-213. |
| 2018 | Healy, C., Schlunke, K., Black, P., Muecke, S., & Driscoll, C. (2018). Meaghan. Cultural Studies Review, 24(1), 1-4. |
| 2016 | Black, P. (2016). The Economy of Persistence Mario the Tailor. CULTURAL STUDIES REVIEW, 22(1), 10-31. |
| 2016 | Black, P., & Findlay, R. (2016). Dressing the Body Introduction. CULTURAL STUDIES REVIEW, 22(1), 4-9. 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. 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. |
| 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. Scopus1 WoS1 |
| 2014 | Black, P., & Driscoll, C. (2014). Editorial. Continuum, 28(6), 749-750. |
| 2013 | Black, P., Allon, F., Driscoll, C., Probyn, E., Race, K., & Redden, G. (2013). Editorial introduction. Inter Asia Cultural Studies, 14(3), 427-431. 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. Scopus9 WoS8 |
| 2013 | Black, P. (2013). designed to death: Tom Ford's <i>A Single Man</i>. FILM FASHION & CONSUMPTION, 2(1), 105-114. WoS1 |
| 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. WoS4 |
| 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. 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. |
| 2009 | Craik, J., & Black, P. (2009). Australian Fashion Perspectives. FASHION THEORY-THE JOURNAL OF DRESS BODY & CULTURE, 13(4), 405-408. WoS1 |
| - | Black, P. (2016). The Economy of Persistence: Mario the Tailor. Cultural Studies Review, 22(1). |
| 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. |
| 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). Scopus2 |
| 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). |
| 2017 | Black, P. (2017). The Speed of Decolonization Travel, Modernization, and the 1955 Bandung Conference. In Cross Cultures (Vol. 191, pp. 261-276). Scopus1 |
| 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 Scopus1 |
| 2010 | Black, P., & Muecke, S. (2010). Antipodean Modernisms: Australia and New Zealand. In The Oxford Handbook of Modernisms. Oxford University Press. DOI Scopus2 |
| 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 WoS9 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| Date | Office Name | Institution | Country |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 - ongoing | Deputy Director | Fay Gale Centre for Research on Gender | Australia |
