CFP - Domesticity Under Siege
Matthew Heins
Domesticity Under Siege
International Architectural Conference
Hosted by the BA(Hons) Interior Architecture course at the School of Architecture Technology and Engineering, University of Brighton
2-4 April 2025
About
At a recent launch of the book ‘Domesticity Under Siege’, Georgina Downey, one of the editors explained:
“I guess we were tired of how the last vestiges of ‘home as haven’ seem to still cling, unquestioned, behind a lot of even recent writing on modern domesticity. They seem to cling in ways that don’t reflect the current fragile state of interiors, and the homes that envelope them, in these troubled global times.”
The words ‘Domesticity’ and ‘Interior’ welded together summon thoughts and ideas about domestic space, including boundaries, enclosure and control. Collectively they generated the material for the book. However, as Downey also cautioned:
“Domesticity is not home, home is not a house, and the house is not interior and domesticity is none of them!”
The opportunity to expand and advance the book’s subject provides the impetus for this International Architectural Conference at the University of Brighton, April 2 – 4, 2025.
We are living through global events; migration, poverty, expulsion, displacement, and resettlement. We are seeing systematic and extremely violent wars against the houses and homes in cities forcing refugees to remake homes in other places, other countries, and other continents. For displaced people, notions of home, security, stability, and safety can be difficult to realise. Impacts of climate change with regular droughts, floods, earthquakes, and cyclones affecting homes as they are erased, suffer long-term damage and short-term disruption. New technologies and ubiquitous computing challenge notions of the home as a stable entity since traditional patterns of occupation and activity now revolve around screens, voice activation systems and robotics. The threat of home invasions necessitates security systems with cameras both inside and outside the home offering a degree of protection but inadvertently suggesting the home is now a streaming platform to be viewed remotely.
The International Architectural Conference April 2025 looks to extend the four core themes presented by the book, as outlined in the conference call, and to gather material for a further publication that will deepen the exploration of these themes through new research, critical discussions, and diverse perspectives from the field.
People
The Domesticity Under Siege architectural conference convenors are: Dr Georgina Downey, Visiting Research Fellow in Art History at the University of Adelaide; Terry Meade, Principal Lecturer in Interior Architecture at the University of Brighton in the School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering and Judit Pusztaszeri a Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture at the University of Brighton in the School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering.
While we were planning this architectural conference, we received the sad news that Professor Mark Taylor one of the editors of the book Domesticity Under Siege, had died. The conference will be a tribute to Mark’s work.
In the planning of this architectural conference, we enjoy the support of our colleagues in the School of Architecture, Technology and Engineering at Brighton University and specifically the BA(Hons) Interior Architecture course: Dr Elisa Lega, Dr Tanya Southcott, Dr Zakkiya Khan, Dr Rafaella Siagkri and Dr Peter Marsh.
We are grateful for the support of the Centre for Design History at the University of Brighton, particularly from Dr Claire Wintle and Dr Megha Rajguru.
We also deeply appreciate the invaluable insights from our keynote speakers and critical friends: Professor Barbara Penner, Professor Anooradha Iyer Siddiqi, and Professor Suzie Attiwill.
Key dates
16th September 2024 // Call for Abstracts
31st Oct 2024 // Abstract deadline
w/c 25 November 2024 // Notification of acceptance
w/c 25 November 2024 // Early bird registration opens
mid-December 2024 // Early bird registration closes
16th January 2025 // Draft paper
16th February 2025 // Peer reviewer’s comments
21st February 2025 // Conference programme announced
7th March 2025 // Standard registration closes
2nd – 4th April 2025 // Domesticity Under Siege Conference
Call for Papers
Theories of the domestic stemming from the 19th century have focused on the home as a refuge and place of repose for the family, a nurturing environment for children and a safe place for visitors. Under this conception, domestic space is positioned as nurturing and private, a refuge and place of retreat which gave rise to theories of ‘home as haven’. While some social conditions might suggest this is the case, there are many occasions when forces act upon the home and threaten aspects of safety and comfort. Domesticity Under Siege exposes a different world, one in which the boundaries of nurturing domesticity collide with both outside and inside agents. Whether these agents are external military forces, psychological trauma or familial violence, they re-position meta-narratives of domesticity, not through identity politics or specialized subgroup experience, but relative to the actions of the world around an inhabited domain.
This conference, based on a recent publication about threatened spaces of the modern home, aims to investigate notions of Domesticity in contemporary discourses. The book also entitled Domesticity Under Siege was organised around four thematic sections, ‘Microbes, Animals, and Insects’, ‘Human Agents’, Wars and Disasters as Agents’ and ‘Hauntings, Eeriness and the Uncanny’. These sections provided a range of approaches to the home which challenge notions of ‘haven’ and reflect major causes that have played an important role in undermining the modern home. The conference proposes to further expand on these themes and explore other aspects where home as shelter, haven, container, or envelope is subject to threat. Domesticity Under Siege also probes the possibility if the threat to a normative sense of domesticity could also bring agency?
We welcome interdisciplinary contributions for each of the following themes:
- Home invasion, by human agents and by microbes, animals and insects
- Domesticity and the threat of wars and disaster
- Domesticity and the Uncanny
- Domesticity and the effects of climate change
- Domestic subjectivity
- Domesticity and gender
- Domestic labour
- Insurgent domestic agency
- Home and the threat of technology
Submission Details
We invite individual and group proposals for 15-minute papers, as well as for themed sessions, debates and round tables.
We welcome cross-disciplinary contributions that explore contemporary developments and project future trends into the theme of ‘domesticity under siege’ as well as those that offer retrospective theoretical and critical interrogations.
We welcome proposals of papers with the intention or possibility to be supported by or delivered through performance, artefacts, or film-based presentation.
For individual proposals please send a 350-word abstract with a title and a 50-word biographical note.
For themed sessions please send the individual abstracts together with the session proposal/ introduction and title.
Please indicate clearly if proposing a full session panel.
Full papers will be required prior to the conference for panel chairs, and to begin the editorial process for possible publication.
Deadline for submission of abstracts of papers and session proposals:
31 October 2024
Email proposals to: Dus-bri...@brighton.ac.uk
For any conference or paper related questions please contact: T.M...@brighton.ac.uk
We look forward to receiving your proposal! The Domesticity Under Siege convenors:
Dr. Georgina Downey, Visiting Research Fellow in Art History, University of Adelaide
Terry Meade, Principal Lecturer in Interior Architecture, University of Brighton
Judit Pusztaszeri, Senior Lecturer in Interior Architecture, University of Brighton