Elections: Olwen Purdue candidate for President of the IFPH

Biographical note
Olwen Purdue is Professor of Social History and Director of the Centre for Public History at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB) where she works on the social and urban history of modern Ireland and on difficult public histories, particularly in divided or post-conflict contexts. Recent publications include Urban Spaces in Nineteenth-Century Ireland (Liverpool University Press, 2018), Children, Poverty and the Poor Law in Industrial Belfast (Liverpool University Press, 2024) and Public History in Ireland: Difficult Histories (Routledge, 2024) along with chapters and articles in peer-review journals such as Cultural and Social History, Urban History, International Public History and Curator: the Museums Journal.
Purdue is a public historian who works with cultural organisations and communities locally and globally. She was Historical Advisor to Titanic Belfast, member of the Irish Museums Association’s Board of Directors, and sits on the Ulster Museum’s Academic Advisory Board. She is collaborating with colleagues at the Smithsonian Institution and US Holocaust Memorial Museum in projects involving difficult and contested pasts, led a project in Jordan to engage marginalised communities in sharing their stories, and is currently developing a community-based project in west Belfast to explore and communicate the history of everyday life through exhibitions, digital outputs and an oral history archive.
As a Councillor of the Royal Historical Society she chairs its Research Support Committee. She is advisory board member for Irish Heritage Studies and series editor for Routledge’s Global Perspectives in Public History. She was international editor for The Public Historian (2016-19) and President, SSNCI (2018-22).
Statement of interest for the position of IFPH President
Today, public historians – whether in the academy, cultural sector, or wider community – face profound challenges. Yet our work is more vital than ever in disrupting reductive historical narratives and sharing complex, nuanced, and critically interpreted stories. The IFPH plays a crucial role in sustaining public historians and advocating for this work globally. As President I would seek to develop the IFPH’s capacity to support public historians in carrying out this important work.
I bring strategic vision and extensive leadership experience. As a Councillor, Royal Historical Society and chair of its Research Support Committee; President, Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland: and chair of the Irish Museum Association’s Advocacy Committee, I have supported growth, fostered collaboration and championed the value of public history at every level. Under my leadership, QUB’s Centre for Public History has developed into a globally recognised centre of excellence, promoting scholarship and practice through international fellowships, conferences and partnerships.
I am committed to advancing collaborative public history, working with communities and institutions to interpret and communicate marginalised, contested, or complex pasts and equipping a new generation of public historians to carry this work forward. My ongoing collaboration with cultural institutions and academic partners across Europe and the US demonstrates my commitment to connecting global practitioners around shared challenges. I would bring this experience, perspective and commitment to the IFPH presidency, working to strengthen the IFPH’s global community, support its members, enhance its visibility, and expand opportunities for meaningful collaboration across regions and sectors.
Letter of Support

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Jimena Perry (November 23, 2025). Elections: Olwen Purdue candidate for President of the IFPH. IFPH-FIHP. Retrieved December 14, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/1572f
