In Becoming an Ally: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People, Anne Bishop outlines seven key steps to becoming an ally and argues that central to this process is the requirement to understand the ways in which we have been oppressed and in turn are oppressors.[1] More recently, while discussing the crucial facets of allyship, Mary Rambaran-Olm stresses that “allyship is a verb. Allyship is action. You must live it and allow being an ally to be part of who you are.”[2] It is this idea of allyship as an action that requires comprehension of our own position in intersecting power structures that is central to my understanding of how we can make our spaces of academia more accessible and inclusive.

[1] Anne Bishop, Becoming an Ally: Breaking the Cycle of Oppression in People, third edition (Fernwood

Publishing, 2015).

[2] Mary Rambaran-Olm, “Weaponizing Medievalism: A Tool for Racism in and out of the Academy,”

paper presented at the Medievalism & Misappropriation series, University of Waterloo,

January 28, 2022, slide 9.