Dr Prudence Gibson
Lecturer
Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA)
iCinema Centre for Interactive Cinema Research
Dr Prudence Gibson is author of monographsÌýThe Plant ThievesÌý(NewSouth Publishing 2023),ÌýThe Plant Contract (Brill 2018) and The Pharmacy of Plants: Janet LaurenceÌý(NewSouth Publishing 2015) in addition to trade books, essays and peer-review papers. Her latest edited book is Dark BotanyÌý(Open Humanities Press 2024). All her work is informed by theoreticalÌýconcepts of critical plant studies, environmental aesthetics, eco-feminism and post-human theory. Her wider work extends to scripting andÌýproducingÌývideo art, narrative projects andÌýcuratorial approaches to plants inspired by new aesthetics and new plant science.Ìý She is Lead CI on the 2020-24 ARCÌýLinkage grantÌýExploring the cultural value of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium collection using an environmental aesthetic. In this roleÌýshe has commissioned artists, poets, soundÌýdesigners andÌýmicro-fiction writers to collaborate with her and with expert scientists at the Royal Botanic Gardens, in order to revalue their collections.
Gibson's own practiceÌýweaves fictional elements andÌýnarrative threads into herÌýscholarly publications. She is also a producer of NTROs and is partÌýof a team commissioned by City of Sydney to create a Barlow Street Banksia Forest in Haymarket. Her latest bookÌýThe Plant ThievesÌýreveals the stories of the plants and people connected to theÌýHerbarium, Mt Annan, Sydney Royal Botanic Gardens. The narrative focuses on the herbarium's specimens and botanists. She has been invited as a keynote speaker to a number of events and symposiaÌýmost recently the Potsdam Film University 2021 Fabulation symposium, the Mind of Plants Symposium 2021 and the Being with Plants 2021 conference. She has been invited to present as part of The Conversation's partnership with the State Library of Queensland Live panel discussion "Once Upon a Plant." She collaborates with scholars at York University (Canada) and Kew Gardens (London). She is a member of the deep south chapter ofÌý the plant studies network,ÌýWorking With Plants in the Anthropocene.
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E-mail
- Publications
- Media
- Grants
- Research Activities
- Awards
- Engagement
- Teaching and Supervision
2020-3Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý Ìý ÌýLead Chief Investigator ARC Linkage LP190100069 $296, 000
2019ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý UNSW Art and Design Dean’s Award for best scholarly single author book – The Plant Contract, Brill.
2019ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý UNSW Art and Design Faculty Research Grant $9, 465ÌýÌýÌý
2018ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý UNSW Art and Design Faculty Research Grant $10,500
2017ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý UNSW Art and Design Faculty Research Grant $1,800
2015 ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý UNSW School of Arts and Media School Research Grant $5000 for Janet Laurence monograph New South Publishing.
2014ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Australia Council New Work grant (Visual Arts Board)Ìý $20 000 to write a book on ‘Plant sentience, bio-art and aesthetics of cure.’
2014ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Dean’s Student Leadership Award – Research, FASS, UNSW
2013ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Dean’s Student Leadership Award – Creative and Performing Arts, FASS, UNSW.ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý
2011ÌýÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Full-time post-graduate scholarship APA UNSW for PhD in writing,Ìý Ìý$24 000 per annum for three years.
2011 ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý International Independent Publishers (silver) Award for category of essay/creative non fiction for the book The Rapture of Death.
2009 ÌýÌýÌý ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý Australia Council New Work grant (Visual Arts Board) $10 000 toÌýwrite a book, The Rapture of Death.
Gibson is Lead Chief InvestigatorÌýon the ARC Linkage project 2020-23, entitledÌýExploring the cultural value of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens Herbarium collection using an environmental aesthetic $296 000.Her research teamÌýincludes Brett Summerell, chief botanistÌýRoyal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, and Sophie O'Brien CEOÌýof Bundanon Trust, UNSW'sÌýSigi Jottkandt and Melbourne University's Professor Marie Sierra.
She is also a key member of the Dirt Witches eco-activist group that creates artworks and urban greening projects to raise awareness for changes toÌýbiodiversity and plant extinctions.
She collaborates with botanists, horticulturists, community greening staff and herbarium managers, and works to deepenÌýconnections (and outputs) with her network of poets, artists, writers and film-makers.