Dr Paul Philippou
Honorary Research Fellow
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Biography
Dr Philippou’s starting point in academia was a long way from his current research activities. He has a BSc (Eng.) and ACGI in Aeronautical Engineering, and an MSc and a DIC in Fluid & Structural Mechanics, all from Imperial College, University of London. His PhD was undertaken at the University of Dundee and is entitled, ‘There is only one P in Perth – And, it stands for Pullars!: the Labour, Trade-union, and Co-operative Movements in Perth, c.1867 to c.1922'. Dr Philippou continues to work in labour and trade union history as an Honorary Research Fellow in History in the Department of History, University of Dundee. He has previously held positions as a Tutor at the Open University and as a Teacher Fellow at the University of Stirling. Dr Philippou is a director of Tippermuir Books, a not-for-profit publishing company based in Perth, is coordinator of madeinperth.org a popular local history website and director of the Soutar Project, a Scottish government-funded project with the remit to publish the ‘Complete Works of William Soutar.’ He has recently been appointed to the Centre for Scottish Culture, University of Dundee.
Research
Dr Philippou’s research interests and output are broad and include labour and trade union history, twentieth century Scottish poetry particularly William Soutar and George Mackay Brown, the Scottish suffrage movement and the Cyprus struggle for independence, 1956-9, and EOKA prisoners of war in British prisons. His publications include Spanish Thermopylae: Cypriot Volunteers in the Spanish Civil War (2009), Battleground Perthshire (2009), Perth: Street by Street (2012), Born in Perthshire (2012), ‘Mutually Hostile Parties?: the co-operative movement in Perth and its relationship with the labour movement, 1871-1918’, Scottish Labour History Journal (2016), The Early Photographers of Perthshire (2016) , 'The Fruits of Long Years of Propaganda and Unremitting Effort: Labour's “Breakthrough” in Scotland in 1922’, Scottish Labour History Journal (2018), Scott’s Fair City. The Fair Maid of Perth & Sir Walter Scott (2018). He is currently editing George Mackay Brown: Beyond the Swelkie (2021, a collection of new poems and essays to mark the centenary of George Mackay Brown (1921-1996)).