Projects per year
Personal profile
Teaching
Convenor, MA in Public History
HIS2011 Politics and Society in Nineteenth-Century Ireland
HIS2012 Politics and Society in Twentieth-Century Ireland
HIS3123 The Irish Country House and its Audiences
MHY7077 & MHY7091 Public History Internships
MHY7089 History and its Audiences
Research Interests
Dr Olwen Purdue specialises in the social and economic history of nineteenth and twentieth-century Ireland. Her research focuses on poverty, welfare and public health in the industrial city - she is currently working on the history of child welfare under the Irish Poor Law, exploring how its systems and processes reponded to the challenges of the rapidly-growing city of Belfast, and how poor families engaged with and experienced these processes. She has also worked on the history of landed estates in the north of Ireland from the end of the Famine until the onset of the Northern Troubles
Dr Purdue is also actively engaged in research and teaching in Public History, something she has been instrumental in introducing to Queen's University. She is founder and Director of the Centre for Public History, and of the MA in Public History. She works closely with the cultural and heritage sectors across Northern Ireland in research, teaching and public engagement. She was specialist historical advisor for Titanic Belfast and a member of the advisory group for the Ulster Museum's Irish history exhibition and its Troubles and Beyond gallery. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the Irish Museums Association.
Dr Purdue is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, member of the Royal Historical Society's Public History Prize panel and judge for the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland's Medical Humanities Award. She is international editor for the Public Historian journal and series editor of Liverpool University Press's Nineteenth-Century Ireland series. She is President of the Society for the Study of Nineteenth Century Ireland.
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Network
Recent external collaboration on country level. Dive into details by clicking on the dots.
Projects
R1080SES: Network for Education in Divided Societies: Development Award AH/T005491/1
Gallagher, T., Duffy, G., Hughes, J., Purdue, O. & Turner, R.
03/07/2019 → …
Project: Research
R1028HAP: Our voices: public history in Jordan
Purdue, O., Harding, S. & Sadler, N.
19/03/2019 → …
Project: Research
Research Output
‘A Gigantic System of Casual Pauperism’: the Contested Role of the Workhouse in Late Nineteenth-Century Belfast
Purdue, O., May 2014, The Welfare State and the 'Deviant Poor' in Europe, 1870-1933. Althammer, B., Gestrich, A. & Gründler, J. (eds.). Palgrave Macmillan, p. 42-57 16 p.Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed)
The Big House in the North of Ireland: Land, Power and Social Elites, 1878-1960
Purdue, O., Jun 2009, UCD Press. 320 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
Belfast, the emerging city: 1850-1914
Purdue, O. (ed.), Nov 2012, Dublin: Irish Academic Press. 304 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
Poverty and power: the Irish Poor Law in a north Antrim town 1861-1921
Purdue, O., Nov 2011, In : Irish Historical Studies. 37, 148, p. 567-583 17 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article
Spaces of engagement: child welfare and family in the industrial city 1880-1939
Purdue, O., 2018, (Accepted) Liverpool University Press. 350 p.Research output: Book/Report › Book
Prizes
Fellow of the Royal Historical Society
Olwen Purdue (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Election to learned society
Vice Chancellor's Prize for Research Impact (shortlisted)
Olwen Purdue (Recipient), 2017
Prize: Prize (including medals and awards)
Activities
External examiner, PhD Thesis
Olwen Purdue (Examiner)13 May 2013
Activity: Examination types › PhD external examination
External examiner for PhD thesis
Olwen Purdue (Examiner)10 Jan 2014
Activity: Examination types › PhD external examination
Historical Consultant for Ulster Rugby Museum
Olwen Purdue (Advisor)2013 → 2014
Activity: Consultancy types › KTP & Consultancy in kind
Research Seminar Paper, Boston College
Olwen Purdue (Invited speaker)Sep 2013
Activity: Talk or presentation types › Invited talk
Press / Media
Thesis
Elite Women and Material Culture in Ireland, 1770-1840
Author: Thorpe, R., 05 Jul 2018Supervisor: O'Dowd, M. (Supervisor) & Purdue, O. (Supervisor)
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy