Call for Papers:
Disability at Home

An advertisement in the Lancet General Advertiser, 1856, showing a variety of chairs, beds and couches intended for use by people with physical disabilities.

A one-day symposium organised by the Centre for Studies of Home.

Deadline for abstracts: 28 February 2025
Symposium date: 15 May 2025

This symposium will explore the relationship between domestic space and disability and d/Deafness, considering how the home shapes, and is shaped by, experiences of impairment. The symposium is organised by the Centre for Studies of Home, a collaborative research partnership between Queen Mary University of London and the Museum of the Home.

The symposium aims to shed light on disability and the home in historical, contemporary, and theoretical contexts, affording insights and exchange between a broad range of disciplinary approaches.

We welcome proposals of no more than 250 words. This Call for Papers is open to academics and other researchers, artists, museum practitioners and those working in relevant industries. We encourage interdisciplinary and intersectional applications and invite proposals for individual papers, panel discussion, interactive sessions, and multimedia presentations. Proposals for photo essays, short documentaries, posters and other forms of presentation are also encouraged.

We welcome contributions on topics including, but not limited to:

  • Representing disability in museums and historic houses

  • Accessible design in the home

  • Disability and housing precarity

  • Disability and collective living

  • Making home in institutional and/or medical settings

  • Care in the home

  • Disability and domestic technologies

  • Representations of disability and the home in literature, art, and media

  • d/Deafness and acoustics in domestic space

  • Deaf Space principles and the home

Please send abstracts to i.whiteley@qmul.ac.uk by Friday 28 February 2025.

This symposium will be held at the Museum of the Home, London. However, we welcome submissions from prospective speakers who would prefer to participate via video link.

We are committed to making this event accessible to as wide a range of participants as possible. Please let us know if there is anything we can do to ensure your access needs are met.