Sir Thomas William Shakespeare,
3rd Baronet, (born 11 May 1966) is an English
sociologist and
bioethicist. He has
achondroplasia and uses a
wheelchair.
Early life and education
Son of Sir William Geoffrey Shakespeare, 2nd Baronet, and Susan Mary, daughter of A. Douglas Raffel, of Colombo, Sri Lanka, his grandfather, Sir
Geoffrey Shakespeare, was made a
baronet following long service as a
member of Parliament and in various senior government roles. While still a student, Tom was featured in a television documentary by
Lord Snowdon connected to his 1976 report "Integrating the Disabled" about his restricted growth, along with his father, a prominent medical practitioner, who was also born with achondroplasia. His mother was a nurse of
Sri Lankan Burgher descent.
Shakespeare was educated at
Radley College,
Oxfordshire, taking
A-levels in English, History, and History of Art; and
Pembroke College, Cambridge, where he matriculated in 1984 to read
Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, completing that
tripos in 1986. He gained an
MPhil degree from
King's College, Cambridge, in 1991.
Career
Shakespeare then lectured in sociology at the
University of Sunderland from 1993 and returned to King's College in 1995 to obtain his
PhD degree. His father died in 1996 and Shakespeare inherited his baronetcy, but does not use the title. He is also a campaigner for
disability rights, a writer on
disability, genetics and
bioethics and was the co-author of ''The Sexual Politics of Disability'' (1996; ).
He studied political science at Cambridge University. As a student, he supported liberation movements such as feminism, anti-racism and lesbian and gay rights. During his MPhil, he wrote a book about the politics of disability. He also wrote the book ''Disability Rights and Wrongs'' published by Routledge in 2006 and edited ''Arguing About Disability'' published in 2009 by Routledge.
He has worked as a research fellow at both
Newcastle University and the
University of Leeds, and has worked for the
World Health Organization in Geneva. Shakespeare was a coauthor and coeditor of the 2011 ''
World Report on Disability,'' published by the World Health Organization and
World Bank. He served as a member of the
Arts Council of England between 2003 and 2008. He has presented programmes on
BBC Radio 4, including ''
A Point of View''.

Shakespeare is (as of 2021) Professor of Disability Research in the medical faculty at the
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and was previously Professor of Disability Research in the medical faculty at the
University of East Anglia (UEA). At UEA, he conducted research, including one regarding group singing and its beneficial effects against depression and anxiety; the findings were published in the academic journal ''Medical Humanities''.
In July 2018 Shakespeare was elected a Fellow of the
British Academy.
Shakespeare was appointed
Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the
2021 Birthday Honours for services to disability research.
Personal life
In 2002 Shakespeare married dancer and disability rights campaigner Caroline Bowditch. By 2010 he had split from his wife and he lived in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
with his partner, Alana. He has two children, both of whom also have achondroplasia; his daughter Ivy is a social worker, and his son Robert is a civil servant. His first grandchild was born in 2020. Owing to a spinal cord injury in 2008, Shakespeare mainly uses a wheelchair, but with physiotherapy had regained the ability to walk with leg splints and cane.
In 2016 he featured on the ITV show ''
500 Questions'', winning £14,000 by answering 42 out of 50 questions. He received a standing ovation for his efforts. His father's maternal half-brother was
Conservative politician Sir
Nigel Fisher.
[Burke's Peerage, Baronetage and Knightage, 107th edition, vol. 3, ed. Charles Mosley, Burke's Peerage Ltd, 2003, p. 3578]
Shakespeare is a
Quaker. He delivered the 2020
Swarthmore Lecture titled "Openings to the Infinite Ocean: A Friendly Offering of Hope".
Arms
References
External links
Personal websiteUEA website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shakespeare, Tom
1966 births
Living people
3
20th-century British educators
20th-century British social scientists
21st-century British educators
21st-century British scientists
Academics of Newcastle University
Academics of the University of East Anglia
Academics of the University of Sunderland
Alumni of King's College, Cambridge
Alumni of Pembroke College, Cambridge
British scientists with disabilities
Commanders of the Order of the British Empire
Contestants on British game shows
English people of Sri Lankan descent
English Quakers
English sociologists
English writers with disabilities
Fellows of the British Academy
People educated at Radley College
People with dwarfism
Shakespeare family
British wheelchair users
Disability studies academics