In this event five speakers explore personal and embodied experiences of domestic and leisure places. We journey beyond the materiality of these places and reflect upon meanings, dreams, practices and memories. We invite you to explore the ‘so much more’ associated with the places that you encounter every day.

We start at home with Sam Johnson Schlee who encourages us to pay attention to objects in the living room. Then we move on to meet Rebecca May Johnson as she mixes critical thought and recipes in the kitchen. We join Ro Spankie in the study as she investigates the objects in Freud’s desk. Nancy Stevenson takes us outside to consider experiences of ‘out-dwelling’ in wooden huts and sheds. Finally, Karen Fitzsimon takes us onto the allotment to contemplate growing food as a way of being.

Questions, refreshments and book signings at the end of the session.

Chaired by Maja Jovic

Speaker Bios

Dr Sam Johnson-Schlee is an academic (LSBU) and writer. He writes non-fiction and memoir about the politics and culture of everyday life. He is interested in how paying attention to familiar objects and practices can open up new perspectives on the world we live in. His book, Living Rooms, was published by Peninsula Press in November 2022, and is about the domestic interior, what it feels like to live inside a commodity, and how we dream of something better from within the home.

Rebecca May Johnson is a writer whose writing brings critical practices into everyday life. Her book Small Fires was published by Pushkin in 2022 and was shortlisted for Foyles non-fiction book of the year. She has published essays, reviews, and nonfiction with Granta, Times Literary Supplement, Daunt Books Publishing and Vittles, among others. She was a creative writing fellow at the British School at Rome in 2021. She earned a PhD in Contemporary German Literature from UCL in 2016. She publishes a newsletter called Dinner Document where she shares recipes and thoughts about food every week.

Dr Ro Spankie is a designer, teacher, and researcher (University of Westminster). She is a Principal Lecturer and subject lead for Interior Architecture and Editor of the Taylor & Francis journal, Interiors: Design/Architecture/Culture. As an interior architect she is interested in how space is occupied and the role of memory in how we construct the world around us.

Ro’s publications include Sigmund Freud’s Desk, An Anecdoted Guide, published by the Freud Museum London. It offers an illustrated guide to Freud through the objects on and within his desk.

Dr Nancy Stevenson teaches at the University of Westminster and is director of Write Retreat UK www.writeretreatuk.org. Her research is embedded in local landscapes and centres on people’s engagement in and experiences of leisure activities. She has written about community festivals and street parties, story-telling, walking, wellbeing, and the importance of pleasure and play in community life. Her book Beach Hut People was published by Publishing Household in 2023.

Karen Fitzsimon is a chartered landscape architect, historian and horticulturist with extensive public and private sector experience. Her research area is post-war designed landscapes and she is currently undertaking a PhD at the University of Westminster investigating the practice of the Danish landscape architect Preben Jakobsen. She is a guest lecturer at the Bartlett, UCL. Karen is also an urban food grower and all her professional work is supported by this activity. Having grown up on a mixed farm she has had her hands in the soil since childhood. For 22 years she has produced vast quantities of food on her north London allotment, which she manages following organic principles. For her, to not grow food is to not live. It is a way of being.

Chair: Dr Maja Jovic is an academic and researcher (University of Westminster). She teaches across Architecture and Tourism as a Senior Lecturer. Her research into post-conflict destinations focuses on the notion of home and belonging, the way fluctuations in national stories reflect on the built environment and, in turn, the way large investments in the built environment create a new narrative of place.

Common Place