Philip W. Deans

I am a researcher with expertise in history, culture and museology. My diverse background continues to inform my work.

During September 2015 I returned to Newcastle University, having completed my Master's degree there, to undertake a Doctorate within Media, Culture, Heritage, a unit which forms part of the institution's School of Arts and Cultures. My research project investigates the history of the Imperial War Museum during the Second World War.

I am interested in museum histories and how national histories and historical artefacts are curated during armed conflict. I am also interested in what national history museum exhibitions, defined broadly, reveal about a society’s social, political and economic mind-set at time of display, and the many environments from which those mind-sets are derived.

Other interests include 20th century history more broadly, particularly the years 1914-1918 and 1939-1945; theatre studies, particularly ENSA (the Entertainments National Service Association) and Grand Guignol (the French theatre of horror); and the issues and ideas surrounding cultural property protection, particularly during armed conflict.

Beyond my doctoral research I have contributed towards the AHRC funded 'Significance of the Centenary' project , and contributed towards delivering the campaign to get the UK government to ratify the 1954 Hague Convention and it's two protocols.

I am on the boards of the Museums and Galleries History Group and the UK National Committee of the Blue Shield.