Tough year to graduate law school! I've been missing the enriching experience of being in person with other students, and the serendipity of conversations in the hallway. But in a year filled with tragedy and hardship, I'm grateful for the support of my family & community.

In 2017, I told @mgeist I was applying to law schools and he made the case for @uocommonlaw. He told me the @uOttawaTechLaw program was exemplary (it is) and that I would have opportunities to work with some spectacular scholars (I did).

So first: thank you @mgeist for convincing me that UOttawa was the way to go! And for giving me as many copyright files as my little RA heart desired. In the universe of public interest tech law, you are a giant and it was a privilege to work with you.

Re: giants, I'll always cherish my year researching w/ @ianrkerr. His ethical clarity and depth of thought are qualities I try to emulate in my work. More importantly, his kindness and generosity are lessons I will bring to my life. I hope to mentor others the way he mentored me.

Through Ian I got to work with @CraigCarys whose scholarship I adore. I've never read a paper of hers I didn't wake up in the middle of the night thinking about. One of my all-time favourites is her dissection of Lockean labour theory and it's (mis)application to copyright.

You should read it! https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2078157 And if you haven't taken the time to check out her collaborative triumph with @ianrkerr "The Death of the AI Author", stop what you are doing and read it right now. https://twitter.com/CraigCarys/status/1361781426954391554

As a student with a critical perspective on property, @jdebeer's class was an absolute treat (which I got to take not only once, but TWICE as a TA—even better the second time). His teaching provided me the tools I needed to be critical while remaining grounded in the doctrine.

The ground we covered in @vivekdotca's tech, human rights & cybersecurity class was staggering! His flip chart mind-maps will live on in my personal hall of fame as symbol of how reconciling human rights & tech presents a complex web of challenges and opportunities.

@vivekdotca also mentored me during my summer @cippic, where I brought together research on two issues I have been writing/thinking about for years: international trade and intermediary liability. The CIPPIC environment was so generative. Advice for 1/2L: apply to CIPPIC!

Special shout out to @tamir_i—personal friend and private law school tutor. I would not have made it though without his constant support and affirmations that no, it actually doesn't make any sense. Every student should be so lucky to have a law school docent as patient as Tamir.

I was also lucky to be there for the start @SuzieMDunn's brilliant teaching career. Suzie teaches with such care, and her attn to the law's impact on women and gender diverse people, Indigenous peoples & racialized communities is a prime example of intersectionality as praxis.

@SuzieMDunn's Law of Images—which she expertly delivered in the Brave New World of online education—brought students from across the interest spectrum together to think laterally abt how imagery is regulated at law. She created community in the chaos, and I appreciate her for it.

So far this thread has been tech heavy, but I would be remiss if I did not highlight two of the most consequential (and non-tech related classes) I took at UOttawa. The first is Constance Backhouse's Feminist Legal Issues and the second is @JoshuaSealy's Race, Racism and the Law.

Professor Backhouse's class turned my mind to the reality of law as a tool of oppression. I'm grateful for the intention she put into structuring her classroom, & the gentleness she exhibited while asking us to stare directly at issues that many Cdns would prefer to ignore.

Prof. Backhouse laid the groundwork for me to deeply engage with issues at the intersection between race and law in @JoshuaSealy's class. I can't say enough good things about that class, so I will leave it at the insufficient: I learned as much from my classmates as I did...

from the professor, which is an absolute feat! @JoshuaSealy led his students to water, and did we ever drink. Being able to clearly see and critique law's non-neutrality is a gift, and I hope to be able to pay it forward throughout my career.

Thank you to all the professors who made my UOttawa experience intellectually and emotionally stimulating: @pavLAWich @mikepalcanada @RolandNadler @jnfrchandler @ADodek @katieszi @f_mb @YYBrandonChen @daniellelussier. I'll miss walking the halls, if not the back-breaking chairs.