As an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at Thompson Rivers University, Diane Purvey co-authored Private Grief, Public Mourning: The Rise of the Roadside Shrine in British Columbia (Anvil, 2009), an exploration of the proliferation of "Roadside Death Memorials" in North America, with John Belshaw. The authors link the erection of makeshift shrines to the dead in modern day public places to First Nations burial sites, illustrating the universality of mourning practices beyond conventional religions.

Purvey has also co-edited Child and Family Welfare in British Columbia: A History (Detselig 2005).

Diane Purvey and John Belshaw's Vancouver Noir (Anvil 2011 $25) examines Vancouver from the 1930s-1960s, an era in which order, conformity, structure and restrictions were considered paramount. Simultaneously the city was rife with gambling, smuggling rings, grifters, police corruption, bootleggers, brothels and murders. 978-1-897535-83-7

Diane Purvey recently joined the newly established Faculty of Arts at Kwantlen Polytechnic University as its first Dean. When she is not commuting across Metro Vancouver she pursues a demanding research and writing agenda focused primarily on the history of de-institutionalization in BC. Formerly an Associate Professor in the Education programs at Thompson Rivers University, she is the co-editor of Child and Family Welfare in British Columbia: A History. She lives in Vancouver's East End, not far from where she was born and raised.

Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
Child and Family Welfare in British Columbia: A History
Private Grief, Public Mourning: The Rise of the Roadside Shrine in BC
Vancouver Noir: 1930-1960

[BCBW 2011]