New lectureship shines light on rehabilitation research

On Thursday, Oct. 27, the inaugural Juliette Cooper Lectureship in Rehabilitation Sciences was presented by Dr. Jenny Moon, a Visiting Fellow and former Associate Professor at Bournemouth University.

The lectureship is designed to promote research excellence in the disciplines of occupational therapy, physiotherapy and respiratory therapy and supports visits of national and international scholars who are outstanding researchers in areas related to rehabilitation.

Juliette ‘Archie’ Cooper, Professor Emerita in the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, established the lectureship at the time of her retirement in 2005 as a way of contributing something back to the University of Manitoba and the College.

“I was trying to think of some way to give back to the university,” she says. “I wanted to give back in a way that really acknowledged the research component of the school and the fact that we’ve come a tremendously long way since I joined.”

Cooper received the 2015 Distinguished Alumni Award, Service to the University of Manitoba.

Funded by donations, Cooper hopes the annual lectureship will grow and continue to have a far reaching impact.

“Internally, I hope students, faculty and support staff will take away some inspiration for the research mission of the College,” she says. “Externally I hope it contributes to the profile of the College in terms of scholarship.”

Cooper also sees the lectureship as an opportunity to create new connections between different researchers and disciplines.

“We could be using the lectureship to establish research linkages and promote networks,” Cooper says. “One of the things important now in scholarship is to have representation from stakeholders and those stakeholders could be the general public, the clients or patients, or policy makers. I think those linkages are very important.”