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First Annual SSN Conference

The Histories of the Home Subject Specialist Network First Annual Conference in association with The City Centre at Queen Mary, University of London

• Friday 5 June 2009 at London Transport Museum

This conference will showcase different approaches to the study of the home from material culture studies and art history through to contemporary ethnographic studies. The papers draw upon a wide range of sources including inventories, paintings and diaries and span the 17^th century to the present day within a British context. The event aims to bring together academics, archivists, museum professionals and postgraduate students to inspire new ideas and foster interdisciplinary dialogue.

Speakers will include:

Alison Clarke (University of the Applied Arts, Vienna)

The home as process – contemporary ethnographic methodologies in making histories of the home

Victoria Kelley (University for the Creative Arts, Rochester)

Cleanliness, shine and polish in working-class and middle-class material culture in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries.

Jane Hamlett (Royal Holloway, University of London)

Middle-class homes examined through literature, diaries, social correspondence and inventories, 1850-1910.

Dianne Lawrence (Lancaster University)

Borders of distinction and fashionable friezes – wallpaper and wall decoration in colonial homes in Tasmania, latter half of 19^th century.

Sara Pennell (Roehampton University)

Home is where the hearth is? The uses and meanings of the hearth in Restoration London.

Kate Retford (Birkbeck, London)

Fabricating the domestic interior? The conversation piece in Georgian England.

Tim Richardson (independent scholar, freelance garden historian)

The importance of biography and connections in understanding the emergent English landscape garden, 1680-1720.

Barbara Simms (independent garden and landscape historian)

Twentieth century house and garden – the role of gardens in domestic life. 

Divya Tolia-Kelly (Durham University)

South Asian post-colonial identity within Britain: memory-objects in the home.

Tickets: £45/£35 concessions (includes light lunch and refreshments)
Bookings: Contact Krisztina Lackoi on 020 7739 9893 or klackoi@geffrye-museum.org.uk

This will be the first annual conference of the Histories of the Home Subject Specialist Network (SSN), which was launched by the Geffrye Museum in May 2008. The SSN was set up following a wide-ranging consultation with museums, galleries, historic houses, libraries, archives, specialist groups, HE institutions and research centres across the UK, funded by the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council (MLA), which revealed a high level of support for the initiative.

The network’s mission is to deepen understanding of the home by sharing expertise and skills, promoting good practice, disseminating information and developing collaborative projects to inspire new ideas and stimulate innovative use of collections by professionals and the public alike. 

Notes to Editors

1) For further information, please contact Nancy Loader, PR and Press Officer, on 020 7739 9893 or nloader@geffrye-museum.org.uk.

2)  The Geffrye explores the home from 1600 to the present day. The museum’s focus is on the living rooms of the urban middle classes in England, particularly London. A chronological sequence of period rooms show how homes have been used and furnished over the past 400 years, reflecting the changes in society and patterns of behaviour as well as style, fashion and taste.

The museum is set in the former almshouses of the Ironmongers’ Company, Grade 1 listed, early 18^th-century buildings. It is surrounded by attractive gardens, which include an award-winning herb garden and a series of period gardens showing the changing style of town gardens (open Apr – Oct). 

3) Admission: FREE

Address: 136 Kingsland Road, Shoreditch, London E2 8EA

Tel No: 020 7739 9893 

Web: www.geffrye-museum.org.uk 

Email:  info@geffrye-museum.org.uk

Opening Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 10am - 5pm
Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays 12noon - 5pm

Travel: Buses: 149, 242, 243, 67 or 394
Tube:  Liverpool St, then bus 149 or 242
Old St (exit 2), then bus 243

4)  The City Centre is a unique academic setting where the city is studied in its wider geo-political, cultural and economic context: its aim is to research city lives and connections. The City Centre has been designed to provide the physical space needed to research the city in a collaborative way, building on local and not-so-local relationships with other scholars, activists, practioners and community organisations.

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21 April 2009

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