inHabit: Text, Object and Domestic Space

About
inhabit artwork images and logo

This network was funded form 2023 to 2015. 

The inHabit: Text, Object and Domestic Space research network focused on the relationships between people, objects and texts within domestic space. These are a series of concepts which are usually considered and conceptualized within discrete disciplinary frameworks, including (but not limited to) literary studies, anthropology, archeology, histories of art, architecture and design. The inHabit research network brought together leading practitioners from a variety of institutions and disciplines to move beyond this compartmentalized perspective to embrace the complex and multi-faceted nature of domestic life.

Domestic space is an important, yet hitherto neglected, framework for exploring how the conflicting demands of being an individual and being part of a group are expressed, negotiated and accommodated. The inHabit network explored those tensions which, manifested in the domestic domain, underlie human existence, through binaries like ease and unease, comfort and discomfort, sufficiency and insufficiency, security and anxiety, continuity and innovation, familiarity and novelty.

 

Network members:

Amy Bogaard, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford

Rebecca Devers, English Faculty, New York City College of Technology

Matthew Jenkins, Department of Archaeology, University of York

Mallica Kumbera Landrus, University Engagement Programme, Ashmolean Museum

Wendy Morrison, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford

Charlotte Newman, English Heritage

Andrea Placidi, School of Architecture, Oxford Brookes University

Catherine Richardson, School of English, University of Kent

Damian Robinson, Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, University of Oxford

Kate Spence, Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge

Stephen Walker, School of Architecture, University of Sheffield

Abigail Williams, Faculty of English, University of Oxford

 

Contact:

Dr Antony Buxton (Department for Continuing Education)

antony.buxton@conted.ox.ac.uk

Dr Linda Hulin (Research Officer, Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology, Institute of Archaeology)

linda.hulin@arch.ox.ac.uk

Dr Jane Anderson (Programme Lead for Undergraduate Architecture, Oxford Brookes University)

j.anderson@brookes.ac.uk

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Events
Past Events

inHabit: Text, Object and Domestic Space

 
 
Inhabit Seminar - A series of 10 seminars were held between January and November 2014.
The inHabit: Text, Object and Domestic Space research network brought together leading practitioners from a variety of institutions and disciplines to move beyond compartmentalized perspectives to embrace the complex and multi-faceted nature of domestic life, focusing on the relationships between people, objects and texts within domestic space.   
 
  1. First Seminar (January 2014) 
 
  1. Dr Damian Robinson (Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology) will be speaking on 'Public and Private in the Pompeiian House" (February 2014) 
 
  1. The media is constantly discussing the gendering of children's toys. Antony Buxton and Linda Hulin presented a series of images to kick-start a discussion of the gendering of adult objects in the home (February 2018) 
 
  1. ‘Genteel paper hangings’: hanging wallpaper in the domestic interior (March 2014) 
Clare Taylor outlined how tradesmen, architects and consumers negotiated tensions around the choice of hanging this most ephemeral of products, and how it challenged other more established forms of wall decoration. 
 
  1. Homeless Spaces as Domestic Spaces: An Archaeological Adventure (April 2014) 
Rachael Kiddey holds a Masters in Historical Archaeology from the University of Bristol (2003) 
 
  1. "Noise as ‘dirty dirt’: negotiating the home on a council estate." (May 2014) 
Pauline Destrée, University of Oxford, MSc Visual, Material, Museum Anthropology (Anthropology) 
Pauline’s research focused on the politics of noise in the domestic sphere, the tenancy project in council housing architecture in London, and the nature of noise in the broader sensory experience of the home.
  
  1. A paper critiquing the often-cited assertion that for the Victorian middle classes and latterly working classes the domains of work and home had become distinct. (June 2014) 
 
  1. A paper examining the way in which fathers and sons seem to go for walks together to talk about sensitive matters, and discuss ways in which medieval space may have offered more privacy outside the dwelling than inside (June 2014) 
 
  1. Presenting Domesticity: A roundtable discussion to explore how heritage sites and museums interpret domestic space for different audiences (October 2014)  
 
  1. 'Violence in the House': This seminar explored the interplay between space and violence in the home (November 2014) 
 
It's Just Not Funny: Humour in the Home (February 2015) 
Seminar Held:  To discuss the persistent role of humour in the negotiation of domestic relationships, from Chaucer’s 'Miller’s Tale', to the eighteenth-century novel, nineteenth century cartoons and the Grossmiths’ 'The Diary of Nobody'. How did the nature of humour alter with the changing nature of domestic life, and what themes persisted? Humour in the home; a serious topic.   
Dr Antony Buxton (Lecturer in design history, material and domestic culture, Oxford University Department for Continuing Education) 
 
InHabit: People, Places and Possessions (May 2017) 
Book at Lunchtime 
Co-editors: 
Dr Antony Buxton (Continuing Education, University of Oxford) 
Dr Linda Hulin (Archaeology, University of Oxford) 
Dr Jane Anderson (Architecture, Oxford Brookes University) 
 
 
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