Purvis chairs Healing Through Remembering, a cross-community project working on the legacy of the past as it relates to the conflict in and about Northern Ireland.

Purvis represented the East Belfast constituency as a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly from March 2007-May 2011, first as a member of the Progressive Unionist Party and subsequently as an independent.

Sponsored by The Duke Human Rights Center at the Franklin Humanities Institute, theBorderWork(s) Lab, the Center for European Studies and DukeEngage,