Noeline Kyle

Noeline Kyle is an Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney, affiliated with the Sydney Nursing School and the Nursing History Research Unit. She commenced her academic career in June 1984 as a limited-term lecturer at the University of Wollongong, where she was promoted to Associate Professor in December 1989. In January 1992, she became Foundation Professor and Head of the School of Cultural and Policy Studies at Queensland University of Technology, guiding a research team focused on gender equity, social justice, and community advocacy until her retirement from full-time academia in 2001.

Her scholarly work centers on the history of education, particularly women’s education, community history, biography, and women’s history. Prominent publications include Her Natural Destiny: The Education of Women in New South Wales (1986), A Class of Its Own: A History of Queensland University of Technology (1999, with Catherine Manathunga and Joanne Scott), The Tidy Classroom: An Assessment of the Change from Single-Sex Schooling to Coeducation in New South Wales (1987, with J. Jones and J. Black), and Writing Family History Made Very Easy: A Beginner’s Guide (2007). Additional books encompass We Should’ve Listened to Grandma, Women and Family History (1988), Memories, Dreams: A Biography of Nurse Mary Kirkpatrick (2001), How to Write & Publish Your Family Story in Ten Easy Steps (2011), Greater Guilt: Constance Emilie Kent and the Road Murder (2009), and her memoir Ghost Child: A Memoir on Growing Up in the Australian Bush (2015). In 2018, she received the Member (AM) in the General Division of the Order of Australia for her significant service to history and higher education as a researcher, author, educator, and advisor to arts funding programs. She continues to teach courses on writing family history and memoir through the University of Sydney’s Centre for Continuing Education, writers’ centres, and community groups nationwide. As patron of the Australian National Museum of Education, she supports community history initiatives and is researching the biography of Constance Kent in Australian child welfare and nursing, as well as the history of midwives in northern New South Wales.

Professional Email: noeline.kyle@sydney.edu.au