Women navigating the ‘academic olympics’: achieving activism through collaborative autoethnography

The authors draw upon the metaphor of the 'infinite game' (Harré, N., Grant, B. M., Locke, K., & Sturm, S., The university as an infinite game: Revitalising activism in the academy. Australian Universities Review, 59(2), 5-13, 2017) and show how they have become responsible for change in the university and created spaces supportive for women. They are engaging in activism through collaborative autoethnography, reflecting on their stories and critiquing struggles and marginalisation to show dilemmas and successes produced within academic institutions. They create four vignettes of being academic women in different countries, identifying contradictions faced in their daily work within an 'Academic Olympics'. The authors propose that through respecting and valuing the diversity that women bring to their work in the academy, universities can be nudged towards infinite possibilities: valuing connection and collaboration and creating networks that foster the creation of more supportive cultures.