Paul Harpur

Professor Paul Harpur OAM is a leading international and comparative disability rights legal academic, current Australian Research Council Future Fellow, leader in higher education reforms, an Senior Associate with the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and duel Paralympian. He competed in the Sydney 2000 Paralympics and the Athens 2004 Paralympics and has the Paralympics Australia Pin #614. Professor Harpur is a TEDx speaker (“Universities as Disability Champions of Change”).

Professor Harpur is a leader in disability research and directs the University of Queensland’s The Disability Collaboratory. The Disability Collaboratory is a university-wide University of Queensland initiative which galvanises the university’s significant but currently distributed research expertise in order to maximise research impact and output. The Collaboratory is the primary means by which UQ enacts its commitment to research excellence in the fields of disability inclusion and was established following the University’s adoption of the Champions of Change Disability Inclusion Research and Innovation Plan. In addition to including a commitment to forming a high-impact disability research network, the Plan will further UQ’s leadership in disability inclusion research, ensuring that people with lived experience of disability play a central role in shaping research outcomes.