Dr Rob Wilks
Lecturer
- wilksr2@cardiff.ac.uk
- 3.40, Law Building, Museum Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3AX
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Overview
Originally from Newport, I am a Deaf British Sign Language (BSL) user and teach through the medium of BSL.
I have a BA (Hons) degree in History, and commenced my legal training by completing the Graduate Diploma in Law in 2002 and the Legal Practice Course in 2003. I qualified as a solicitor in 2007 following a secondment to South West London Law Centres and Hugh James Solicitors whilst employed by the Royal Association for Deaf people.
On an academic level, I achieved a LLM with Distinction in Law of Employment Relations with the University of Leicester in 2007 and was awarded a doctorate in 2020 by the University of Leicester exploring whether equality law is working for Deaf people and whether sign language recognition will achieve transformative equality.
My specialist area of law is Equality Law and Employment Law, and my current research interests are the impact of sign language recognition, deaf education, disability discrimination and equality law and developing Deaf Legal Theory.
Biography
Academic positions
- 2014-2022: Senior Lecturer, University of South Wales
Committees and reviewing
- Member of the School's Equality and Diversity Committee
- Member of Cardiff University's Disability Staff Network
Teaching
I currently teach Business Law and Practice and the Employment Law elective on the LLM Legal Practice/Legal Practice Course.
Articles
- O'Neill, R., & Wilks, R. (2022). Deaf Education in Scotland and Wales. (Article in preparation).
- Wilks, R. (2022). Developing Deaf Legal Theory. (Article in preparation).
- Wilks, R. (2022). Making Equality Law Work for Deaf People. (Article in preparation).
- Wilks, R. (2022). Making Sense of Equality: The Case of Deaf People. (Article in preparation).
- Wilks, R. (2022). Making Sense of Equality. (Article in preparation).
- Wilks, R. (2022). Developing Deaf jurisprudence: the role of interpreters and translators. In C. Stone, R. Adam, R. Müller de Quadros, & C. Rathmann (Eds.). Routledge Handbook of Sign Language Translation and Interpreting (pp. 249-266). London: Routledge. (link)
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Lawson, L, McLean, F., O’Neill, R., & Wilks, R. (2019). Recognising British Sign Language in Scotland. In M. De Meulder, J. J. Murray, & R. L. McKee (Eds). The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages: Advocacy and Outcomes Around the World (pp. 67-81). Bristol: Multilingual Matters. (link)
Reports
- Wilks, R. & O’Neill, R. (2022). Deaf Education in Scotland and Wales: Attitudes to British Sign Language in deaf education compared to Gaelic and Welsh. (link)
- O'Neill, R. and Wilks, R. (2021). 'The impact of the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act 2015 on deaf education. (link)
- Brattan-Wilson, J. and Wilks, R. (2012). Making the law work for young Deaf people. Colchester: Royal Association for Deaf people.
Webpages
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Wilks, R. (2016, 15 September). Legal Analysis: Examining suggested workplace improvements for D/deaf workers. LexisPSL.
Articles
- Wilks, R. (2016, 1 November). Brexit – what impact will Brexit have on the Deaf community? London: British Deaf News. (link)
- Wilks, R. (2016, 1 October). Brexit – UK’s greatest constitutional crisis yet? London: British Deaf News. (link)
- Wilks, R. (2016, 1 September). Brexit – what’s it all about? London: British Deaf News. (link)
- Wilks, R. (2016, 1 June). We don’t need a BSL Act, apparently London: British Deaf News. (link)
- Wilks, R. (2015) Analysis: Are you in court and know the interpreter well? Inform the judge. London: British Deaf News.
- Wilks, R. (2012, 21 May). Deaf people and access to legal services. Limping Chicken. (link)
Supervision
I am interested in supervising PhD students in the areas of:
- Equality and discrimination
- Employment law
- Disability legal studies
- International human rights
- Sign language recognition and the rights of Deaf people
- Access to justice
