Personal profile

Research Statement

Ruth Duffy is currently a Research Fellow at Queen's University Belfast In the School of Arts, English and Languages. Prior to this, Ruth worked as an Oral History and Public Engagement Officer on the NHS Voices of Covid-19 project at the University of Manchester

Ruth has collaborated with the University of Birmingham's Forged by Fire: Burns Injury and Identity in Britain project. Contributing expertise on the La Mon Hotel Bombing to be used in a graphic novel which was published by the project. She has also contributed to the Epidemic Belfast podcast and written a piece for their website about the experiences of medical staff working during the Northern Ireland Troubles.

Ruth collaborated with Belfast City Council's Freedom of the City Music Project in 2021-22. Facilitating story gathering as part of a wider project which recognised the work of key workers during the Covid-19 pandemic and explored the impact of the pandemic on the city and its people. The project outputs included a concert at the Waterfront Hall which was broadcast by the BBC and an album of songs created by local community groups. 

She has also spoken at public events including the Northern Ireland Science Festival and the ESRC: Social Sciences festival. She has written a piece for RTE Brainstorm about her research.

Ruth's first monograph on the experiences of the Northern Ireland health service during the Troubles, is being published by Liverpool University Press and will be released in September 2024. The monograph is based on her PhD thesis which was awarded the Adele Dalsimer Prize for Distinguished Dissertation from the American Conference for Irish Studies in 2022 and the AHSS best thesis by Ulster University. 

Ruth is a fellow of The Senator George J. Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice.

Research Focus

Ruth is a historian of medical and oral history. Her expertise lies in modern British and Irish history; the Troubles, medicine, Irish society and culture. She particularly focuses on using oral history as a method to uncover hidden or sensitive histories.

Ruth is currently a Research Fellow on Dr Alison Garden's UKRI Future Leaders funded project ‘Acts of Union: Mixed Marriage in Modern Ireland’. The project is taking an interdisciplinary approach to investigate how the experiences of real life mixed marriage couples intersect with the social and cultural narratives expressed about these relationships. The project hopes to bring  the findings of this research to life through the help of theatre and exhibitions alongside scholarly and popular publications.

Teaching

Contributed to: 

MHY7081 Topics in Irish History

LIB3001 Arts and Humanities in the Contemporary World

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

  • SDG 16 - Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

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