Home and Domestic Culture

The Home and Domestic Cultures research cluster provides an interdisciplinary and collaborative space to investigate the multifaceted meaning of home across historical periods and in our contemporary world.

Co-led by Dr Lucinda Matthews-Jones (History) and Dr Emily Cuming (English Literature), the network provides a space for critical and creative thought on cultures of home and domesticity for over 30 members of staff and postgraduate members from across disciplinary areas that include:

  • education
  • art history
  • architecture
  • media
  • drama and performance
  • film studies
  • international relations and politics
  • independent researchers

Activities involve regular speaker seminars, workshops and creative collaborations.

Contact us

If you would like to become a member or have any questions about the network, please send us an email.

Recent events

Seminar series, December 2025

  • Dr Emma Roberts, ‘Fantasy Interior Spaces and the Liminal Experience on Board Cunard Liners in the Nineteenth Century’
  • Dr Ros Merkin, ‘Unstable and Uncanny: Staging the Home Front in World War Two’

Exhibition and publication, July 2025

  • Playing Out, ed. by Julia McKinlay and Jonathan Orlek, featuring artwork by photographer Hannah Platt and an essay by Emily Cuming

Roundtable and workshop on ‘Rewards and Challenges of Public Engagement’, January 2025 

  • Dr Ruth Doughty (Film Studies, LJMU), ‘Littlewoods Heritage Project’  
  • Prof Elspeth Graham (RILCH Research Fellow and Emeritus Prof, LJMU), ‘Making the Shakespeare North Project and Playhouse: History, Comedy, Tragedy'  
  • Prof James Mansell (Cultural, Visual and Media Studies, Nottingham University), ‘The Science Museum “Sound and Music” Project’  
  • Dr Charlotte Wildman (History, University of Manchester) ‘Burnage: A Place Called Home'