'Stay home': rethinking the domestic during the Covid-19 pandemic

As a site of self-isolation and lockdown, the home is at the forefront of strategies to save lives in the Covid-19 pandemic. The proposed research and its co-created outputs will lead the public debate about home in a pandemic society. Based in London and Liverpool, and in partnership with The Museum of the Home (MoH) and The Royal Geographical Society (with IBG) (RGS-IBG), the research combines a nationwide and city-scale approach in three interconnected strands. 1. 'Documenting home' interrogates the ways in which 'stay home' has been represented, reimagined and contested in political debate and media coverage. It also explores and extends MoH's online 'Stay home' collecting project and will co-curate material for display, deposit and digital engagement. 2. 'Practising home' examines the practices, spaces and meanings of home during the pandemic for migrants, diaspora communities and people of faith in London and Liverpool, both 'hotspots' of Covid-19. Working with adults from different ethnicities, faiths and generations, alongside migrant/diaspora and interfaith organizations, we will co-create short films, podcasts, an interfaith toolkit and material for the MoH collections. 3. 'Mapping home' explores children's changing conceptualisations of home at a time of crisis. Working with the RGS-IBG, its school networks and initiatives, we will co-curate (i) a nationwide map of home spaces for children/young people (aged 7-16) during Covid-19; (ii) a city-scale project in Liverpool City Region to anlayse children's narratives alongside their maps; and (iii) a virtual exhibition, learning resources (KS2-4) and a policy brief on children at home during Covid-19.