A one-day interdisciplinary conference

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:

Professor Ben Highmore, Cultural Studies, University of Sussex

Dr Lisa Taylor, Principal Lecturer in Media, Leeds Beckett University

The domestic garden represents, for many, the closest and most significant contact that they have with the natural environment. The relationship of humans with this domestic outdoor space, in which nature can be ‘controlled’ by the householder, is often very different to that with ‘wild nature’, to be found in the countryside and national parks. Efforts to find a key to significant behavioural change leading to sustainable living are vital to the future health of both people and planet and grow more urgent with every new warning from scientists. Domesticity and Nature in Home and Garden seeks to provide a fresh, interdisciplinary perspective on the interaction of humans with the environment by focusing on the relationship between the house and the garden across time and place, on the ways in which family life occurs in the domestic space and how it moves between the indoors and the outdoors. This conference will, through possible subsequent academic publication and alongside ongoing public engagement, promote a rethink of our place in the nature that is on our doorstep.