Pippa Poppy Catterall (born Peter Paul Catterall in 1961)[1][2] is a British academic historian who, since 2016, has been Professor of History and Policy at the University of Westminster. Her research has focused on twentieth-century history and politics, the mass media, conflict studies and nationalism.
Catterall graduated from Cambridge University with a history Bachelor of Arts (BA) degree in 1984, and then completed a doctorate (PhD) at Queen Mary University of London in 1989, having successfully defended her thesis on religion and politics in inter-war Britain. She was a research fellow at the Institute of Contemporary British History (1989–90) and Director of the Institute until 1999. From 1999 to 2000 she was a Fulbright Scholar at the Westminster Churchill Institute. In 2000, she returned to Queen Mary to teach history and politics until 2012, when she was appointed Reader in History at the University of Westminster; four years later, in 2016, she was promoted to Professor of History and Policy.[3]
She was a Conservative councillor in the London Borough of Bexley until 2014, where she served as Cabinet Member for Leisure.[4]
Catterall specialises in the history of the twentieth century.[5] She was founding editor of the journal National Identities.[6][7] She has worked in conflict studies and nationalism,[8] and on twentieth-century history, including the history of mass media, and as editor of the diaries of Harold Macmillan.[9] In Northcliffe's Legacy, she explores the role of news media in the "persistence" of popular misunderstandings of Einstein's Theory of relativity.[10]