'Home and Belonging'

Two of our excellent Research Centres - the Bedford Centre for the History of Women and Gender and the Bodies and Material Culture Research Group - combined their expertise on the 15 June 2026 to deliberate on the topic of 'Home and Belonging', and what 'home' means for different cultures and societies across time. With an excellent range of papers delivered by members of numerous departments (PGR and Academic), this was a fantastic multidisciplinary event organised by our Professor Kate Cooper and Professor Jane Hamlett. 

Home and Belonging: Conversations Across Disciplines
Open Workshop
Bedford Centre for the History of Women and Gender and Bodies and Material Cultures Research Group
Monday 15 June, 10:00-12:30  
Schedule:
10am – Welcome and Introduction – Jane Hamlett, Kate Cooper and Weipin Tsai
 
10.00-10.30 Theme One – Security, Privacy and Feelings
Jocelyn Kenny (Clinical Psychology) We Can and Should Go Home Again: Going Home to Facilitate Self-Reflexivity.
Jane Hamlett (History) Feeling at Home in Victorian England.
Maryam Mehrnezhad (ISG) Smart Home Security and Privacy.
 
10.30-11.00 Theme Two – Performance
Charlotte Bookham (History) Performing Animals At Home.
Gloria Lowe (Drama) Making Home Theatre Work.
Tom Doyle (History) "There's No Place Like Home": Amateur musical societies and the play on domestic life.
 
11.00-11.30 Coffee Break and Chat
 
11.30-12.00 Theme Three – Living Spaces and Narratives
Mollie Legg (Classics) The Odyssey: Telling stories in schools about a fictional home
Kate Cooper (History) The Home as a Space of Conflict in Late Antiquity
Hanna Miles Jewell (English) Vladimir Nabokov: Exilic Nostalgia
 
12.00-12.30 Theme Four – Consumption and the Lifecycle
Dilara Scholz (History) Mourning at Home in Victorian England
Weipin Tsai (History) Growing know-how: Cotton Cultivation and Household Encyclopedias in the Late Qing China
Richard Alston (Classics) The Home and the Production of Society in Roman-period Egypt

Photograph (from left to right): Dr Weipin Tsai, Professor Kate Cooper, Professor Jane Hamlett introducing the agenda for the afternoon.