GP058: Exploring Critical Consciousness with Stephanie Lurch

Today’s guest is Stephanie Lurch, a storyteller, activist, leader and physiotherapist. A dynamic award-winning educator, Stephanie has worked across multiple settings in the healthcare and education sectors, bridging the gap between academia and practice. Her career has been distinguished by a wide breadth of clinical, teaching and real-life experiences including working with the Cirque du Soleil, as part of a team of caregivers in West Africa, with Indigenous peoples in New Zealand, and currently as a paediatric physiotherapist in the public school system. She is an Assistant Clinical Professor at McMaster University, Lecturer at Western University and was the inaugural Assistant Professor and Academic Lead: Equity, Anti-racism and Social Accountability at the University of Toronto in the Department of Physical Therapy where she worked for over 10 years. She is recognized for integrating social justice and the arts into health professions education. Her past achievements include, but are not limited to co-authoring the Essential Competency Profile for Physiotherapists in Canada (in 2017), co-authoring new equity-driven accreditation standards for Physiotherapy Education Accreditation Canada (in 2020) and providing thought leadership to both learners and key opinion leaders. Stephanie has been an invited keynote speaker in the healthcare and education spaces. Her book chapter Moving in Complex Spaces: A Call to Action for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Physiotherapy promises to further her impact. Stephanie discusses her keynote address at the Canadian Physiotherapy Association National Congress in 2024 entitled “Manifesto of a Critical Consciousness”, and so much more, in this inspiring episode. Resources: – Manifesto of a Critical Consciousness Recording – Lurch S, Cobbing S, Chetty V, Maddocks S. Challenging power and unearned privilege in physiotherapy: lessons from Africa. Front Rehabil Sci. 2023 Jun 26;4:1175531. doi: 10.3389/fresc.2023.1175531. PMID: 37521329; PMCID: PMC10381923. – Sir Ted Robinson Ted Talk: Do Schools Kill Creativity – Mary Anne Chambers: “The real downside of privilege is that we get a narrow view of life” – Tracy Blake: Sport and Justice with Tracy Blake Part 1 and Sport and Justice with Tracy Blake Part 2 – bell hooks: “radical space of possibility” – Fannie Lou Hamer: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free” – Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl – Harriet Jacobs  – Dr. Ayana Johnson – Phoebe Boswell: “Justice is Medicine” – Examining Anti-Blackness in Canadian Physiotherapy Education Using Critical Race Theory and Critical Race Feminism as Theoretical Perspectives By Oyindamola Otubusen and Stephanie Lurch Contact Us: – Website: globalphysio.ca – E-mail: [email protected] – Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/globalphysiopodcast/ – Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/globalphysiopodcast – Twitter: https://twitter.com/globalptpodcast