Professor Alfredo Artiles - Inaugural Professorial Lecture

Future Research on the Intersections of Ability, Race, and Language Differences: Re-framing the Roles of History and Poverty

Please register for this event using our online registration form.

The purpose of this lecture is to outline interdisciplinary re-framings in the study of the intersections of ability, racial, and linguistic differences. A focus on these intersections will advance educational equity work that engages complex forms of difference, which are increasingly becoming the norm around the world. A favourite explanation in this literature is poverty, which is often construed as a proxy for race or language differences. In addition, poverty is sometimes chosen as the factor that explains not only the racialization of disabilities, but school success. Professor Artiles will offer a critique of core premises and approaches related to the role of poverty in this knowledge base. Furthermore, he will argue for contextualizing future research in a historical dimension that accounts for the longstanding entanglements of ability, race, and language and their attendant negative consequences for educational policy and practice. Finally, offering suggestions for addressing these critiques in future scholarship.

Alfredo Artiles has recently been appointed to a Chair in the Department of Disability Inclusion and Special Needs (DISN), within the School of Education here at the University of Birmingham. Alfredo has an outstanding reputation in the field of inclusion and special education and has very broad interests in the area that will complement the work of the department.

The lecture will be followed by a drinks reception.

We look forward to seeing you at Professor Artiles’s Inaugural Lecture, as places are limited, please do book early.