The Faculty of Health Sciences of K. Marcinkowski Medical University Karola Marcinkowskiego in Poznan and the City of Poznan are pleased to invite you to a public lecture by Professor Michael K. Iwama entitled "The Coffee Model - how to understand and organise human life? That is, to view human biography through a river metaphor." The lecture will take place on 6 December in the Rydygier Hall at the University Clinical Hospital ul. Przybyszewskiego 49. Start at hrs. 4 p.m.
Professor Michael K. Iwama is the creator of the "Kawa Model" (kawa means river in Japanese), the first practice model in rehabilitation science to be developed outside the English-speaking world. The Kawa model is currently taught in more than 600 health and aid training programmes worldwide, and is used in various therapies on six continents.
Professor Iwama holds a Bachelor's degree in Occupational Therapy and a Master's in Rehabilitation Science from the University of British Columbia, Canada. He later studied medical anthropology at Leiden University in the Netherlands and obtained a PhD in sociology at the Kibi International University in Japan. He authored over 60 scientific papers that have achieved 2224 citations. Professor Iwama's best-known publication is a monograph entitled The Kawa Model: Culturally Relevant Occupational Therapy, published by Elsevier Publishing in 2006.
Professor Iwama draws on his extensive acculturation experience in Eastern and Western cultural circles to present the theory and practice of occupational therapy and rehabilitation through a critical perspective.
Currently, Professor Iwama serves as Professor and Strategic Head of the Department of Doctoral Studies in Occupational Therapy at the Duke University Medical School in the United States. He has previously held professorial positions at the University of British Columbia (Canada), Kibi International University (Japan), Dalhousie University (Australia), University of Toronto (Canada), University of Alberta (Canada), University of Salford (UK), University of Queensland (Australia), James Cook University (Australia), National University of Malaysia (Malaysia).
Professor Iwama is regularly invited as a keynote speaker at international conferences and as a visiting professor at many universities in America, Asia, and Europe. Since publishing his book "The Kawa Model: Culturally Relevant Occupational Therapy" in 2006, he has given over 350 lectures and over 40 keynote and plenary presentations at scientific conferences.