Institute for the Public Understanding of the Past
IPUP Director
Victoria Hoyle
Victoria Hoyle is Lecturer in Public History in the Department of History, a historian of 20th and 21st century health and social care, and an archivist. She convenes the MA programme in Public History.
Her research interests are in the social, cultural and emotional impacts of public history practices, particularly in archives. Her forthcoming book The Remaking of Archival Values (Routledge, 2022) examines the relationship between archival heritage, social justice and democratic process, in the context of archival institutions and community activism in the UK. She specializes in the use of participatory, qualitative and action methodologies, working directly with those affected by her research.
Victoria also works on child social care, health and wellbeing in the 20th and 21st centuries, with a focus on difficult and contentious histories of trauma, violence and abuse. She formerly with the MIRRA: Memory-Identity-Rights in Records-Access project at UCL (2017-2019), working with care-experienced adults on issues of memory, identity and record-keeping, to produce advice and guidance for care leavers, social workers and government agencies. Her next research project explores how 20th century histories of child sexual abuse have been constructed and presented in the context of transitional justice processes in the UK, Ireland and Australia.
Originally a medieval historian, Victoria subsequently trained as an archivist and worked in archival practice for 11 years prior to her return to academia. She was York’s City Archivist between 2013 to 2017.
.jpg)