Antiracist Occupational Therapy – Author meet & greet with Musharrat Ahmed-Landeryou
5:00 – 6:00pm | 1.0 Contact Hours
Join OOTA on April 10, 2026 at 5:00 pm to meet the author of our Winter DEIJAB Book Club Selection, Antiracist Occupational Therapy: Unsettling the Status Quo. This virtual meeting will conclude the winter session of the DEIJAB book club. All are welcome to come and participate as we dig into the details surrounding what it means to bring antiracist practice into your delivery of OT services.
Register below!
Book Summary:
This book challenges occupational therapy practitioners, students, and educators to rethink the role of race, power, and systemic inequities within the profession. Throughout the chapters, it makes a case that OT is not neutral and has historically been shaped by Eurocentric perspectives that can unintentionally reinforce racial injustice.
The early chapters introduce race as a social construct and explain how racism (structural, institutional, and interpersonal) continues to shape health outcomes and access to meaningful occupations. The book emphasizes that disparities are not due to individual differences but the result of deeply rooted systems of oppression tied to colonialism, slavery, and ongoing power imbalances.
A key focus is on whiteness and privilege, encouraging practitioners to critically reflect on how dominant norms influence education, practice, and knowledge in OT. The authors highlight the importance of occupational justice, showing how racism limits participation in everyday life and calling for a shift toward addressing systemic barriers, not just individual needs.
Through lived experiences and narratives, the book centers the voices of marginalized communities, demonstrating how racism is experienced daily and impacts health, identity, and opportunity. It also calls for the decolonization of occupational therapy, urging the profession to move beyond Western frameworks and embrace diverse, global perspectives.
Later chapters focus on action and accountability. The concept of antiracist allyship is presented as an ongoing, active, and collective process. Practitioners are encouraged to move beyond awareness into meaningful action by:
- Building authentic relationships with communities
- Continuously educating themselves
- Naming and addressing systemic racism
- Reflecting critically on their own biases and roles
- Taking responsibility within their sphere of influence
The final chapter looks ahead, emphasizing that real change must be embedded in policies, education, leadership, and everyday practice. It highlights global perspectives and reinforces that neutrality is not enough. To create equitable systems, OTPs must actively engage in antiracist work.
Author bio:
Musharrat is a co-founder of the BAMEOTUK Network, a campaign and pressure group of Black Asian and Minoritised Ethnicities (B.A.M.E.) students, staff and educators, to promote equity and justice from the occupational therapy profession, professional body and in education, and the profession in the UK. She has been on local, national, and international events discussing why we need decolonising of occupational therapy and science. Her completed PhD is on the topic of service improvement and occupational therapy and she is a history maker in the profession as sole editor of ‘Antiracist Occupational Therapy: Unsettling the status quo’ a book topic not raised in the profession’s literature.
Hosted by the OOTA DEIJAB Book Club