Professor Paul Harpur OAM
Fellow
- Bio/Profile
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Professor Paul Harpur OAM is a nationally and internationally acclaimed legal scholar, advocate and director. He is currently Affiliated with the Harvard Law School Project on Disability, and an International Distinguished Fellow with the Burton Blatt Institute, College of Law, Syracuse University, New York. He is a former Fulbrighter, having been awarded a prestigious Fulbright Future Scholarship entitled "Universally Designed for Whom? Disability, the Law and Practice of Expanding the "Normal User".
In 2021 Professor Harpur was awarded a 4 year Future Fellowship, commencing in 2022, with the Australian Research Council entitled “Normalizing Ability Diversity through Career Transitions: Disability at Work”. Professor Harpur is using his Future Fellowship to support the higher education sector to become champions of disability inclusion.
Professor Harpur is involved in higher education reforms, including serving during 2023 on the Federal Education Minister's Universities Accord Ministerial Reference Group. He also serves on the Higher Education Standards Panel (HESP), which is a statutory body under Part 9 of the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011 (Cth). The HESP is charged to advise and make recommendations to the Minister and to the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) on the Higher Education Standards Framework and to TEQSA on matters including TEQSA’ strategic objectives, corporate plan, performance against that plan, regulatory and reform agenda. From 2024 Professor Harpur serves on the Advisory Board for the Australian Centre for Student Equity and Success, formerly the National Center for Student Equity in Higher Education.
Professor Harpur is also an ambassador for the Australian Human Rights IncludeAbility Network. This network has major Australian employers who are actively seeking to champion disability inclusion. With the support of Vice-Chancellor Debbie Terry and Deputy Provost Pauline Ford the university continues as the first founding member from the higher education sector.
In 2019 he was named a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Professor Harpur chairs the UQ Disability Inclusion Group, which supports the university in its implementation of the UQ Disability Action Plan. He also sits on the Academic Board, the University Senate's sub-committee focusing on inclusion, and on the Senate Committee for Equity Diversity and Inclusion.
Professor Harpur has published monographs with Cambridge University Press. 'His monograph, Discrimination, Copyright and Equality: Opening the E-Book for the Print Disabled (2017), analyses the interaction between anti-discrimination and copyright laws, and his Ableism at Work, Disablement and Hierarchies of Impairment 2019, analyses disability inequalities at work in several jurisdictions. Professor Harpur has also led a range of projects, including an International Labour Organization project assessing labour rights in the South Pacific, including a particular focus on the rights of persons with disabilities.
Professor Harpur is a TEDx Speaker, ‘Universities as Disability Champions of Change’, and has given numerous keynotes and speeches, including addressing the International Labour Organization in Geneva.
Outside the law, Professor Harpur has been a professional athlete with a disability, competing in the 2000 Sydney and 2004 Athens Paralympics, the 2002 Manchester and 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games and a range of other World Titles and international competitions.
In the 2024 Australia Day Honours, Professor Harpur was awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia by the Governor General of Australia (OAM). The citation for his OAM is “for service to people with disability”.
Professor Harpur is the 2022 Blind Australian of the Year.The Blind Australian of the Year Award recognises and celebrates “Blind Australians, who by example- inspire others to excellence, by action, improve Australian life.”
He received the 2021 BEL Employee Excellence Award in Research for excellence in Cross-Faculty Research.
The UQ Disability Inclusion Group, which he chairs, was recognised as Champions for Change in recognition of the tireless work they do to improve inclusion and access to higher education” by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education& Equity Practitioners in Higher Education Australasia.
In the Australian HR Awards, Excellence Awardees 2021, the University of Queensland was awarded the “BEST Workplace Diversity & Inclusion Program”.Dr Harpur is part of this large team including, Al Jury, Provost Professor Aidan Byrne, Angie Sturrock, Professor DVCR Bronwyn Harch (FTSE, FAQ), Caitlin Bennett, Celina Campas, Dr Deanne (Dee) Gibbon CSC OAM, Vice Chancellor Professor Debbie Terry, Dr Dino Willox, Elodie Tischer, Jordan Akhurst, Kriti Garg, Monika Andersen, Neena Mitter, Nicole Barton, Rob Moffatt, Tanya Lutvey, and Taylor Bamin.
