Welcome to the Gallery

What is the gallery: This gallery is the home to 65 innovative teaching resources focused on equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI) and anti-oppression designed by our final year students as the culmination of their Department of Physical Therapy “SPEC” curriculum. The 65 teaching resources are available for viewing in these 6 exhibition rooms:

Yellow 1	Red 1	Blue 1
Yellow 2	Red 2	Blue 2

What is the “SPEC” curriculum”: SPEC stands for Social, Political, Ethical and Cultural (SPEC) Dimensions of Health and Healthcare. These teaching resources are the result of the final SPEC assignment, which aims to build critical reflexivity regarding privilege and how one’s social locations are related to systems of inequality.

What is the Gallery Walk: The gallery of teaching resources is being launched on March 26 with an event that includes 6 curated exhibition discussions led by faculty facilitators and guest stars. During the live Gallery Walk event (program below), guests are invited to “walk” through the rooms to listen in and join dialogues reflecting on EDI and anti-oppression in physiotherapy and healthcare. If you would like to attend the live Gallery Walk event, and haven't already done so please register here.

How do I find a specific student's project: This alphabetical list by student last name indicates the exhibition room hosting their teaching resource.

Program for The Gallery Walk, March 26, 2021, 11am-1:30pm

Register here to attend the live Gallery Walk event.

Click for a PDF of this program

11:00-11:25 – Opening remarks

Welcome: Stephanie Nixon
Department of Physical Therapy Chair’s remarks: Susan Jaglal
Keynote: Stephanie Lurch

11:25-11:30 – Transition time

11:30-12:10 – Exhibition discussions 1

Red 1 room: Martine Quesnel (faculty facilitator) + Sudhir Daya (guest)
Blue 1 room: Barbara Gibson (faculty facilitator) + Dan Mossip-Balkwill (guest)
Yellow 1 room: Stephanie Lurch (faculty facilitator) + Suruthi Jeyakumar (guest)

12:10-12:30 – Break

12:30-1:10 – Exhibition discussions 2

Red 2 room: Lindsay Beavers (faculty facilitator) + Harikrishnan Gopalakrishnan Nair (guest)
Blue 2 room: Barbara Gibson (faculty facilitator) + Stella Ng (guest)
Yellow 2 room: Stephanie Lurch (faculty facilitator) + Cynthia Lawson Lurch (guest)

1:10-1:15 – Transition time

1:15-1:30 – Closing remarks

Guest bios

Harikrishnan (Hari) Gopalakrishnan Nair (he/him) is a multi-talented visual artist, poet, fashion designer and media personality. He is an alumnus of the Ontario Internationally Educated Physical Therapy Bridging Program, works clinically at the Toronto Academic Pain Medicine Institute (TAPMI) at Women’s College Hospital, and lectures in the UofT Department of Physical Therapy as part of the pain team. Hari is currently re-deployed for COVID related duties as a team lead for mobile vaccination units as well as school and community testing.

Suruthi Jeyakumar (she/her) is a freelance creator and student currently in her last year of Advertising and Graphic Design at Humber College. Although working primarily with digital content, she started her journey in traditional mediums. Most of Suruthi's work is shaped around exploring diverse concepts through abstract imagery and typography.

Cynthia Lawson Lurch (she/her) is a Black renaissance woman: "a woman who is interested in and knows a lot about many things" (Webster). She is a child of the civil rights movement, a great grandmother, a teacher, a leader, and a humanitarian. As a Jamaican immigrant, retired nurse and someone living with a chronic health condition, she has been both a caregiver to those on the margins and a survivor of inequitable care. She hopes to change surviving into thriving.

Dan Mossip-Balkwill (he/him) has been working with people experiencing homelessness through street outreach work and the shelter system. He has also facilitated group sessions and co-created a peer support program with service users. Dan has been organizing with Showing up for Racial Justice (SURJ) for the last two years, and prior to that, worked on campaigns to raise social assistance rates in Ontario and environmental issues in Southern Ontario.

Stella Ng (she/her) was motivated by her clinical experiences as a pediatric audiologist to study how health professionals learn to practice well in response to the complexities of people’s lives, the health system, and society. Stella studies critical pedagogy and knowledge mobilization approaches to support the development of compassionate, ethical, and reflective practitioners. Stella is a Scientist at the Wilson Centre, Director of Research at the Centre for Faculty Development, and Associate Professor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology.

Sudhir Daya (he/him) is a gay, cisgender, able-bodied male of South Asian heritage who grew up in apartheid South Africa before emigrating to the UK. He runs The Life Architect (a human potential consultancy) and its man.I.cure project that explores structural patriarchy. Sudhir is a practising physiotherapist, convenor of the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy's LGBTQIA+ network, and a member of CSP’s Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) network. @sudhir_daya