Dr Rob Wilks

Qualifications:

BA (Hons), PGDipL, PGDipLP, LLM, PGCDPPHE, FHEA, PhD

Position:

Senior Lecturer in Law

Department:

Bristol Law School

Telephone:

+441173281588

Email:

Rob.Wilks@uwe.ac.uk

Social media:

About me

Originally from Newport, South Wales, I am deaf and fluent in British Sign Language (BSL) and English, and I teach through BSL.  At UWE Bristol, I teach employment law across undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

I was previously Senior Lecturer and Legal Practice Course Leader at the University of South Wales, and Lecturer in Professional Law at Cardiff University.

After completing an LLM with Distinction in Law of Employment Relations in 2007, I was awarded a doctorate by the University of Leicester in 2020 for my thesis examining whether equality law works for deaf people and whether sign language recognition can achieve transformative equality.

My monograph, The Deaf Legal Dilemma: Challenging Equality Law, was  published by Hart in 2026.  I am also editor of the forthcoming Oxford University Press volume Developing Deaf Legal Theory.

I am Principal Investigator for the £25,000 Strengthening Global Majority Representation in Deaf Legal Theory: A Pilot Project in Ghana project funded by the UWE Vice Chancellor's Early Career Researchers scheme, and Co-Investigator with Dr Christopher Shank (Bangor University) and others on the £1.04 million AHRC Deaf Health Wales project.

Area of expertise

I have a strong interest in sign language law, with an article published in Sign Language Studies comparing the efforts of Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland to legislate for BSL and ISL.  I plan to do further research in this area, particularly on the impact of sign language law.

Wider afield, I am developing Deaf Legal Theory as a new perspective in legal jurisprudence.  I am also establishing Deaf Legal Studies as a field through the Deaf Legal Studies Association and an editorial published in March 2026 in Amicus Curiae.

Publications

Publications loading...