Fall 2023 Research Highlights
Faculty Awards Highlights
Congratulations to the School's Assistant Professor, Heidi Lauckner on receiving the Queen’s University 2023 School of Rehabilitation Therapy Distinguished Alumni Award. The School of Rehabilitation Therapy Distinguished Alumni Award recognizes one graduate annually from each of the Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Rehabilitation Science, and Aging and Health programs who have made exceptional contributions to their chosen profession, field, or community.
Congratulations also to Brenda Beagan on receiving the CAOT Golden Quill Award, shared with Elizabeth Pooley, for their article titled The Concept of Oppression and Occupational Therapy: A Critical Interpretive Synthesis
Publication Highlight
Congratulations to School of Occupational Therapy Former Director Lynn Shaw, Instructor and Academic Coordinator, Disability Management Certificate Program, Karen Joudrey, and MSc Post Professional graduate Cisela Thoren on the recent publication of Retrospective review of work transition narratives: Advancing occupational perspectives and strategies.
Citation on record:
Shaw, L., Thoren, C., Joudrey, K. (2023). Retrospective review of work transition narratives: Advancing occupational perspectives and strategies. Work, Preprint(Preprint), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.3233/WOR-230362
The Dalhousie School of Occupational Therapy has a strong international reputation for both occupational therapy research and occupational science research.
School faculty members Heidi Lauckner and Niki Kiepek presented their scholarship at the 2023 Occupational Science Europe Conference in Denmark.
In her presentation, Niki suggested the concept of occupational justice encompasses ecological and interspecies justice. She proposed that occupational therapists and occupational scientists have obligations to consider how occupations can contribute to sustainable outcomes, how occupations can have a destructive or detrimental impact on the earth and more-than-humans, and the impact of occupations on future generations. This work has been published in a research paper called Occupation in the Anthropocene and Ethical Relationality, which is publicly available in the Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy.
Heidi collaborated with colleagues from the International Social Transformation through Occupation Network (ISTTON) (https://os-europe.org/international-social-transformation-through-occupation-network/) to offer pre-conference workshop that was led by Aline Godoy Vieira, a Brazilian OT at University of Sao Carlos. The workshop guided 50 participants through an emancipatory educational process that encouraged critical reflection in small groups as an essential starting point for collective action towards social transformation. During the conference, Heidi also gave a presentation that proposed that individual mindfulness, when combined with somatic, trauma-informed approaches, could help bridge individual and collective change efforts.
Heidi also shared a short poster presentation that drew on different ways of knowing to explore the role of intentional daily activities, including spiritual practices and reflections on interconnectedness and oppression, in collective change processes.
Beyond all the learning at the OSE conference, some notable highlights from Demark that encouraged some reflection from an occupational perspective include:
- the individual stall gender-neutral washrooms throughout the host university illustrated how structural changes can easily create safe and inclusive spaces for all
- the extensive use of bikes in Denmark provided an example of how infrastructure can support daily commute choices, which can have broader environmental and sustainability impacts.
If issues like these intrigue you learn more about occupational science and Dalhousie's MSc in Occupational Science program.