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Olwen Purdue Elected and Ratified as President of the International Federation for Public History

The International Federation for Public History (IFPH) is pleased to announce that Professor Olwen Purdue has been elected and ratified as President of the IFPH.

She is Professor of Social History and Director of the Centre for Public History at Queen’s University Belfast (QUB). Her research focuses on the social and urban history of modern Ireland and on difficult public histories, particularly in divided or post-conflict contexts. Her 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), alongside numerous articles and chapters in leading peer-reviewed journals such as Cultural and Social History, Urban History, International Public History, and Curator: The Museums Journal.

Professor Purdue is an internationally engaged public historian who works closely with cultural organizations and communities in Ireland and beyond. She has served as Historical Advisor to Titanic Belfast, as a member of the Irish Museums Association Board of Directors, and currently sits on the Academic Advisory Board of the Ulster Museum. Her collaborative projects include work with the Smithsonian Institution and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on difficult and contested pasts, initiatives engaging marginalized communities in Jordan, and an ongoing community-based project in west Belfast focused on everyday life histories through exhibitions, digital outputs, and oral history.

Alongside her research and public-facing work, Purdue brings extensive leadership experience to the federation. She is a Councillor of the Royal Historical Society and Chair of its Research Support Committee, has served as President of the Society for the Study of Nineteenth-Century Ireland (2018–2022), and chairs the Irish Museums Association’s Advocacy Committee. She was International Editor of The Public Historian (2016–2019), is an advisory board member for Irish Heritage Studies, and serves as series editor for Routledge’s Global Perspectives in Public History.

Under her leadership, Queen’s University Belfast’s Centre for Public History has developed into a globally recognized hub for scholarship and practice, fostering international fellowships, conferences, partnerships, and collaborative research. In a formal letter of support, the School of History, Anthropology, Philosophy and Politics at Queen’s University Belfast confirmed its full institutional backing for Professor Purdue’s presidency, including support for travel, teaching relief, and administrative commitments, ensuring her ability to fulfil the responsibilities of this role.

In her statement of interest, Professor Purdue emphasized the urgency of public history in a global context marked by polarization, contested pasts, and growing pressures on cultural and academic institutions. She underscored the IFPH’s critical role in supporting public historians across sectors and regions and expressed a strong commitment to strengthening international collaboration, enhancing the federation’s visibility, and expanding opportunities for meaningful, inclusive engagement across its global membership.

As President of the International Federation for Public History, Olwen Purdue brings strategic vision, international experience, and a deep commitment to collaborative, community-engaged, and critically informed public history. Her election and ratification mark an important moment for the federation as it continues to support public historians worldwide and to advocate for the value of public history in addressing complex and difficult pasts.


OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
Jimena Perry (January 24, 2026). Olwen Purdue Elected and Ratified as President of the International Federation for Public History. IFPH-FIHP. Retrieved February 11, 2026 from https://doi.org/10.58079/15k15


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