More Than a Place: Centre for Studies of Home Annual Lecture 2026

A talk followed by an ‘in conversation’ and Q&A with author and researcher Katie McCrory.

One in three people say they feel more at home in places other than where they live, and nearly half think the media doesn’t reflect their life at home.

Author and researcher Katie McCrory has spent the last decade exploring the idea of home, thanks to her leadership of the global and award-winning IKEA Life at Home Report. To date, the research has been conducted in more than 40 countries, with over 300,000 people. One thing is clear—the way we feel about our home has a major impact on how we feel about ourselves.

In her upcoming book, Where the Heart Is, Katie expands on these major findings and other revealing insights, alongside her personal experiences and practical solutions. The central theme of her book is an exploration of the eight universal emotions that come together to create ‘the feeling of home’. In this talk, Katie will share more about this new emotional framework as she seeks to ask—and answer—a simple, double-sided question: What does home feel like, and how can we make it feel better?

Information about Where the Heart Is: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/468634/where-the-heart-is-by-mccrory-katie/9781911709831

About Katie McCrory

Katie McCrory is an author and researcher. As the Life at Home Leader at the global headquarters for IKEA in southern Sweden, since 2017 she has led the largest and most distinctive piece of international research into home: the annual and award-winning IKEA Life at Home Report. Katie has written and spoken extensively about life at home across different platforms, and publishes a popular weekly newsletter with readers from over 40 countries, called Life at Home.

Katie has lived in the UK, the US and Denmark, having moved home upward of twenty-five times. Today she lives in Copenhagen with her husband, two young children, and their enormous housecat.

Connect with Katie on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/katie-mccrory-a078b823

About Centre for Studies of Home

The Centre for Studies of Home (CSH) is an interdisciplinary partnership between Queen Mary University of London and Museum of the Home, combining expertise and exchanging knowledge across the two institutions since 2011.

We develop new research that deepens and diversifies understandings of home for public and academic audiences.

Our research is collaborative and cross-disciplinary, encompassing work on home both within and beyond the domestic sphere. Alongside everyday life, domestic architecture, and material culture, we are interested in broader ideas about home, dwelling and belonging.

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