Dr Angharad Butler-Rees

Dr Angharad Butler-Rees

School of Education
Research Fellow

Contact details

Email
a.butler-rees@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Angharad Butler-Rees is a Research Fellow in the Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs (DISN), where she is working on the ‘Access to Learning – Learning to Access’ study funded by the RNIB. The study is running in parallel to the implementation of the Curriculum Framework of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment (CFVI). 

Angharad’s primary research interests are in inclusive education, disability, social justice and inequalities.Prior to her current role, Angharad was a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick (2020-2023) where she investigated disabled young people’s post-16 transitions and the range of mechanisms through which adolescent disability is translated into social disadvantage later in life.

Angharad has also worked in the Centre for Research in Inclusion at the University of Southampton (2019-2020) and has gained experience of working in the charity sector, working for Leonard Cheshire Disability and UCAN Productions (a creative arts cooperative for blind and partially sighted young people).

Qualifications

PhD in Human Geography, University of Southampton 2020

Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, 2019

BA (Hons.) in Human Geography, Durham University 2016

Biography

Angharad Butler-Rees is a Research Fellow based at the Vision Impairment Centre for Teaching and Research (VICTAR) within Department of Disability, Inclusion and Special Needs. 

She joined VICTAR in November 2023, prior to this she was working as a Research Fellow in the Department of Sociology at the University of Warwick (2020-2023) on the Educational Pathways and Work Outcomes of Disabled Young People in England study, and Co-I on The Intersectional Effects of Disability and Social Class on Becoming NEET study. 

Angharad has also worked as a research fellow in the Centre for Research in Inclusion at the University of Southampton (2019-2020), where she undertook research into digital accessibility. 

She undertook her PhD within the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Southampton (2016-2020), where she explored forms of disability activism in response to austerity using both participatory and biographical methods.

Angharad also has experience of working outside of academia, having worked at both Leonard Cheshire Disability and UCAN Productions (a performance and creative arts organisation for blind and partially sighted young people).

Research

Research interests

-        Inclusive education

-        Accessibility

-        Disability rights

-        Social justice

-        Social inequalities 

Current projects

‘Access to learning-Learning to Access: Investigation of the Outcomes of Children and Young People with Vision Impairment Study’ funded by the RNIB

Other activities

Angharad is currently member of the Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging (EDIB) Advisory Board for Oxford, Cambridge and RSA Examinations (OCR).

Publications

  •  Butler-Rees, A (2023) “‘My Existence is Resistance’: An analysis of disabled people’s everyday lives as an enduring form of resistance”., in: Hughes, S (ed.) Critical Geographies of Resistance, London: Edward Elgar Publishing.
  • Chatzitheochari, S and Butler-Rees, A (2022) Disability, Social Class, and Stigma: An Intersectional Analysis of Disabled Young People's School Experiences, Sociology 57(5): 1156 – 1174.
  • Butler-Rees, A and Chatzitheochari, S (2022) Giving a Socially Distanced Voice to Disabled Young People: Insights from the Educational Pathways and Work Outcomes Qualitative Longitudinal Study, International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 26(4): 483-496.  
  • Butler-Rees, A and Hadley, B (2022) “Exploring the role of the disabled body as a vehicle and art-form within anti-austerity protest”., in: McNeill, Z and Zebrachi, M (eds.) Politics as Public Art: The Aesthetics of Political Organizing and Social Movements, London: Duke University Press.
  • Butler-Rees, A (2021) “There’s no place for emotions in academia; dealing with the increasing pressures and expectations of the neoliberal academy as a disabled scholar”., in: Brown, N (ed.) Lived experiences of ableism in academia: strategies for inclusion in higher education, Bristol: Policy/Bristol University Press.
  • Lewthwaite, S., Coverdale, A and Butler-Rees, A(2020) Teaching accessibility in computer science and related disciplines: a systematic literature review and narrative synthesis protocol. Social Science Protocols, 3: 1-11.
  • Butler-Rees, A. 2020. My Existence is Resistance: Exploring spaces and forms of dsability activism in the United Kingdom during a time of austerity. PhD Thesis, University of Southampton.
  • Butler-Rees, A and Robinson, N (2020) Encountering precarity, uncertainty and everyday anxiety as part of the postgraduate research journey, Emotion, Space and Society 37: 100743
  • Butler-Rees, A(2017) Vulnerability in Resistance, Gender, Place & Culture 24(9):1368-9.
  • Pain R, Heslop J, Ormerod E, Butler-Rees A, Crawshaw H, Davisson H, Dawson L, Fairhurst M, Galin M, Harman D, Holloway E, James T, Liu A, Chau C, Qing H, Read F, Smith M, Somerset C, Sporik E, Turner I (2016) DISPOSAL: The Housing Crisis in Horden’s Numbered Streets. Durham University: Centre for Social Justice and Community Action.

Other outputs

  • Butler-Rees, A, Chapple, M and Chatzitheochari, S (2023) How Social Class Deepens Inequalities Experienced by Disabled Young People in English Mainstream Schools, Special Needs Jungle [Online]
  • Butler-Rees, A and Chatzitheochari, S (2022) Seeking Alternatives: A Reflection on Conducting Online Interviews with Disabled Young People during the COVID-19 Pandemic, International Journal of Social Research Methodology Editor's Notebook [Online]

View all publications in research portal