The Centre for Public History provides a lively hub for people engaged in researching, teaching, and practicing public history. It seeks to nurture excellent research, provide a forum for debate, and develop working dialogue between academics, practitioners, and the public around issues relating to the practice of history in the public sphere. Research associated with the Centre focuses on a wide range of national and global contexts, historical periods, and disciplines, while our location in Northern Ireland provides a unique environment in which to explore many key issues around public engagement with, and consumption of, the past.

We work with a wide range of public history and heritage professionals and communities locally and globally to better understand how history works, and can be put to work, in the public sphere and how best to engage diverse public audiences in exploring their own pasts and those of others. We have particular specialisms in dealing with difficult, traumatic or contested pasts, in storytelling and in the use of digital technology to engage audiences in new ways.

At the heart of our public history offerings are the wide range of events which offer members of the public, historians, and  practitioners the chance to engage, discuss, and debate. The Centre is proud to host the Keith Jeffery Annual Public History Lecture, which began in 2016, provides a platform for a senior scholar to reflect on contemporary issues in public history. Our Public History Annual Conference is held every September.