Kyle
Jordan
Curatorial Fellow and Postgraduate Scholar at Curating for Change
Education
Kyle Lewis Jordan is an early career archaeologist and museum professional. Born with Cerebral Palsy, he fell in love with ancient Egypt at the age of six years old and set himself the goal of becoming the Director of the British Museum at the age of ten.
Since going on to complete both his BA in Ancient History and Egyptology, and MA in the Archaeology and Heritage of Egypt and the Middle East at University College London, Kyle has become an internationally recognised scholar in the study of disability in antiquity, having now delivered several talks and papers on the subject for both public and academic audiences.
For his work, Kyle was awarded the Snowdon Trust Master’s Scholarship in 2020/21 to support his studies and recognising his potential as a young disabled leader. Since September 2022, he has been one of eight Fellows for Curating for Change, a scheme aimed at creating career pathways for d/Deaf, disabled and Neurodivergent people within museums. As part of his placement at the Ashmolean Museum and Pitt Rivers Museum in Oxford, Kyle has been developing a public gallery trail – co-curated with disabled peers from the Oxfordshire community – entitled Nothing Without Us, seeking to explore the collections through the lens of disability.
Through his work, Kyle seeks to understand not just how ancient people recognised and responded to the impairments we see as part of disability today, but also how people with those impairments lived varied and complex lives, some at the very centre of important milestones of human development. In doing so, Kyle believes it can not only help to dismantle public misconceptions about the experience of disability both historically and today, but that disabled people also deserve to see themselves in that history: not just as a footnote, but as integral to the development of society.
Kyle believes that this not only important scholarly work, but an integral part of achieving justice for disabled people. He has twice served as UCL’s Disabled Students Officer and previously worked with Camden’s Child Safeguarding Team on addressing issues that affect young disabled people in Camden.
“I sincerely believe that the world is in serious need of leadership from disabled people. Not simply helping to identify the flaws of a failing system, but who have actively demonstrated the need and ability to devise new ways forward. New ways of being and becoming. This isn’t what makes us ‘Other’; it makes us human to our very core.”
Disability Power 100 2023 profile information has been self-submitted by the profile subject. Shaw Trust understands and respects that disability and impairment descriptors and language use varies from person to person. Shaw Trust assumes no responsibility or liability for any errors or discrepancies in the content of this, or any other, profile page.
Image credit: Christiane Brittain, Ashmolean Museum
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