Hilda Kean (born August 1949)^[1] is a British historian who specialises in public and cultural history, and in particular the cultural history of animals.^[2] She is former Dean and Director of Public History at Ruskin College, Oxford, and an Honorary Research Fellow there.^[2] Kean is a visiting professor of History at the University of Greenwich and an adjunct professor at the Centre for Australian Public History at the University of Technology Sydney.^[3]

She is the author of a number of books, including Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain since 1800 (1998), and People and their Pasts: Public History Today (2009, with Paul Ashton).^[2]

Books

• (2017) The Great Cat and Dog Massacre
• (2013) Reader in Public History, Routledge, ed with Paul Martin
• (2009) People and their Pasts: Public History Today, Palgrave Macmillan (ed with Paul Ashton)
• (2004) London Stories: Personal Lives, Public Histories, Rivers Oram Press
• (2000) Seeing History: Public History in Britain Now, Francis Boutle, ed with Paul Martin, Sally J. Morgan
• (1999) Ruskin College: Contesting Knowledge, Dissenting Politics, Lawrence and Wishart, ed with Geoff Andrews, Jane Thompson
• (1998) Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain since 1800, Reaktion Books
• (1990) Deeds not Words: The Lives of Suffragette Teachers, Pluto Press^[4]
• (1990) Challenging the State? The Socialist and Feminist Educational Experience, Falmer

Selected papers

• (2011) "Commemorating Animals: Glorifying Humans? Remembering and Forgetting animals in War Memorials," eds Maggie Andrews, Charles Bagot–Jewitt, Nigel Hunt, Lest we Forget. Remembrance and Commemoration, History Press, pp. 60–70
• (2011) "English Labour movement festivals and the past: commemorating defeat and creating martyrs," in eds Laurajane Smith, Gary Campbell & Paul Shackel, Cultural Heritage and the Working Class Heritage, Labour and the Working Classes, Routledge
• (2011) "Traces and Representations: Animal Pasts in London's present," The London Journal
• (2010) "People, Historians and Public History: De -mystifying the Process of History Making," Public Historian, vol. 32, no. 3, August, pp. 25–38
• (2009) "Balto, the Alaskan dog and his statue in New York’s Central Park : animal representation and national heritage," International Journal of Heritage Studies, vol. 15, no. 5, pp. 413–430
• (2008) "Personal and Public Histories: issues in the presentation of the past," in eds Brian Graham and Peter Howard, The Ashgate Research Companion to Heritage and Identity, Ashgate, pp. 55–69
• (2007) "The moment of Greyfriars Bobby: the changing cultural position of animals 1800 – 1920," in ed Kathleen Kete, A Cultural History of Animals in the Age of Empire 1800 – 1920, vol. 5, Berg, pp. 25–46
• (2005) "Public History & Popular Memory. Issues in the commemoration of the British militant suffrage movement," Women’s History Review, vol. 14 nos. 3 & 4, pp. 581–604
• (2004) "Public history and Raphael Samuel: a forgotten radical pedagogy?" Public History Review vol. 11, Professional Historians Association, New South Wales, Australia, pp. 51–62
• (2003) "An exploration of the sculptures of Greyfriars Bobby, Edinburgh, Scotland and the old brown dog in Battersea, South London, England, Society and Animals, Journal of Human-Animal Studies, vol. 11, no. 4, 2003, pp. 353-73.
• (2003) "Making History in Bethnal Green: different stories of nineteenth century silk weavers," with Bruce Wheeler, History Workshop Journal, no. 56.