Date: Thursday, July 14, 2022 10:30 AM- Thursday, July 14, 2022 11:45 AM
Location: Virtual

Professor Tom Shakespeare 

Tom Shakespeare is Professor of Disability Research in the medical faculty at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) where he currently focuses his efforts as a sociologist and bioethicist. Professor Shakespeare served as a technical officer (TO) at the World Health Organisation (WHO), where he co-authored ‘The World Report on Disability’ (2011). 

Publications include Disability Rights and Wrongs (2006), Defying Disability: The Lives and Legacies of Nine Disabled Leaders (2009), while his academic publications number well over one hundred. 

Tom is Chair of an International NGO — Light for the World (https://www.light-for-the-world.org) which works to break down barriers to unlock potential. Tom has been involved in the disability movement for decades and became even more focused upon completion of his PhD at King’s College, Cambridge, subsequent to studies in history, art, political science, & philosophy.

Prior to the LSHTM appointment Tom was Professor of Disability Research in the medical faculty at the University of East Anglia (UEA). At UEA, he conducted research, including one regarding group singing and its beneficial effects against depression and anxiety; the findings were published in the academic journal Medical Humanities.

He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in July 2018.

In 2016 Tom was featured on the ITV show 500 Questions, winning £14,000 by answering 42 out of 50 questions.