Talks & Events

INVITED TALK ‘Introducing Deaf Legal Studies’ (UWE Global Crime Justice & Security Conference, 21 May 2026).

INVITED TALK ‘The BSL (Wales) Act 2026’ (The BSL Act, Deaf Health, and the Arts and Humanities, Deaf Health Wales, Wales Arts & Humanities Alliance, Learned Society of Wales and School of Advanced Study Policy Forum, Bangor University, 17 April 2026).

INVITED TALK ‘From Barking Dogs to Roarless Dragons: The Legal Recognition of Sign Languages across the United Kingdom’ (Sign Language Network, Queen’s University Belfast, 26 January 2026).

INVITED WORKSHOP ‘Introducing Deaf Legal Studies’ (Critical Issues in Deaf Studies, MA Interpreting, Queen’s University Belfast, 26 January 2026).

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘Deaf Legal Studies: How Law Understands, or Fails to Understand, Deaf People’ (UWE College of Business and Law Research Excellence Group, Research Showcase under the RISE Beacon: Enriching Culture, Place and Community, Bristol, 10 December 2025).

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘What does professionalism mean for teachers of deaf children?’ (International Congress on the Education of Deaf Children, Rome, 9 July 2025).

With Rachel O’Neill

INVITED PANEL (CANCELLED) ‘Ensuring Access to Justice: The Role of British Sign Language in Courtrooms’ (Minority Languages in Courtrooms in the United Kingdom and Ireland, Aberystwyth University, 27 June 2025).

Event cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances.

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘Giving voice to deaf patients in Wales: Promoting more positive healthcare experiences through first-person narratives’ (online) (Semmelweis Medical Linguistics Conference, Basic Medical Science Center of Semmelweis University in Budapest, Hungary, 23 May 2025).

With Sara Rhys-Jones, Christopher Shank and Anouschka Foltz

POSTER ‘Ten Years On from the British Sign Language (Scotland) Act’ (Bilingualism Matters Symposium, University of Edinburgh, 24 March 2025).  

With Rachel O’Neill

WEBINAR ‘Co-Producing the Deaf Legal Theory Model’ (Zoom, 26 February 2025).

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘From barking dogs to roaring dragons the legal recognition of British and Irish sign language in the United Kingdom’ (Symposium on Law and Language: Exploring the Intersection between Law and Language on International Mother Tongue Day, University of Salford, 21 February 2025).

INVITED TALK ‘From barking dogs to roaring dragons: The fight for BSL recognition in the UK’ (Legal Recognition of Sign Languages: Realities of Deaf Experiences, University of Birmingham, 8 November 2024).

WEBINAR ‘Developing Deaf jurisprudence: The role of sign language interpreters and translators’ (Department of Languages, Literature and Communication, Utrecht University, 28 June 2024)

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘Guiding Principles and Codes of Practice’ (European Federation of Associations of Teachers of the Deaf Conference, Dublin, 26-27 April 2024).

With Rachel O’Neill

INVITED TALK ‘Deaf-Disabled or Language Minority? Redefining Equality Frameworks for Deaf People’ (online) (BSL Week Lunchtime Sessions, Velindre University NHS Trust , 20 March 2024).

INVITED TALK ‘Exposing equality law as it relates to Deaf people: developing Deaf Legal Theory’ (Festival of Change Alumni Events, University of Leicester, 30 November 2023).

KEYNOTE ‘Architects of Change: Considering your impact, identity and inclusion’ (Keynote, South West Doctoral Training Partnership Annual Conference, Bath, 23 November 2023).

INVITED TALK ‘A BSL Act for Wales: why we need it and why we need it now’ (Deaf Together, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, 4-6 May 2023).

WEBINAR ‘Developing Deaf Legal Theory’ (Chinese University of Hong Kong for the Asia-Pacific University Consortium for Sign Linguistics, April 2023).

WEBINAR ‘Making Equality Work for Deaf People’ (Chinese University of Hong Kong for the Asia-Pacific University Consortium for Sign Linguistics, April 2023).

INVITED TALK ‘Deaf Education in Scotland and Wales: lessons from the Scottish and Welsh approaches’ (BSL Conference, London, 17 March 2023).

With Rachel O’Neill

INVITED TALK ‘ The Future of BSL in the UK: what will the BSL Act 2022 do for us?’ (BSL Conference, London, 17 March 2023).

INVITED TALK ‘Betting on deaf children’s futures: how far are the Scottish and Welsh approaches ensuring the inclusion of BSL in deaf education?’ (Unmasking Educational Inequalities, BID, 30 January 2023).

With Rachel O’Neill

INVITED TALK ‘Betting on deaf children’s futures: how far are the Scottish and Welsh approaches ensuring the inclusion of BSL in deaf education?’ (EdSign Lecture Series, Deaf Action, 20 December 2022).

With Rachel O’Neill

INVITED TALK ‘Developing Deaf Legal Theory’ (University of Birmingham, Language and Law Seminars, 10 November 2022).

INVITED TALK ‘Language Planning in Scotland: institutional plans, civil society and government engagement (Language(s), Interculturality and Literacies Research Hub Webinar series, 8 December 2021).

With WILSON McLeod and Rachel O’Neill

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘The impact of the BSL (Scotland) Act on the education of deaf children and young people: transformative equality?’ (British Association for Applied Linguistics 2021 Conference, Northumbria University, 9-10 September 2021).

With Rachel O’Neill

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘The impact of the BSL (Scotland) Act on the education of deaf children and young people’ (Language Policy Forum, Bishop Grossetese University, 27-28 May 2021).

With Rachel O’Neill

INVITED TALK ‘The impact of the BSL (Scotland) Act on the education of deaf children and young people’ (Language in Context Research Seminar series, University of Edinburgh 7 May 2021).

With Rachel O’Neill

INVITED TALK ‘Making equality law work for Deaf people’ (Doctoral Inaugural Lecture 2021, College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities, University of Leicester, 31 March 2021).

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘Making equality law work for Deaf people’ (South Wales Business Research Conference: Widening Your Horizons, University of South Wales, 2 July 2020).

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘Making equality law work for Deaf people‘ (Bridging the Gap 6 – Deaf people’s rights: is research working to advance them?, University of South Wales, November 2019).

CONFERENCE PAPER ’Teaching through BSL: its impact on teaching practice‘ (Learning and Teaching Conference, University of South Wales, June 2019).

INVITED TALK ‘Scotland, BSL, language recognition and the law’ (Deaf Studies Conference, University of Wolverhampton, February 2019).

With Gordon Hay and Rachel O’Neill

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘Why equality law and Deaf people don’t get on’ (Business School Research Conference: Gaining Momentum, University of South Wales, 29 May 2018).

CONFERENCE PAPER ‘Why equality law and Deaf people don’t get on: developing Deaf Legal Theory’ (Deaf Academics Conference, Copenhagen, August 2017).