Dr Signa A Daum Shanks is a lawyer, law professor, and historian. Currently working at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Law, she teaches, researches, and has taught property, torts, legal history, law and economics, game theory, Canadian constitutionalism and Indigenous peoples, and Indigenous legal traditions. Before becoming a full time academic, Dr Daum Shanks worked at a national law firm, MAG Ontario, the federal Departments of Justice and (now) Indigenous Services, and Saskatchewan Justice. Dr Daum Shanks is a Senior Fellow at Massey College. Her poetry has appeared in publications such as the Literary Review of Canada, Folklore, Queen’s Quarterly, and Canadian Literature.
Recognized with the President’s Award from the Women Lawyers Association of Ontario, a scholarly research prize from the Law Commission of Canada, the national Scholarly Paper Award from the Canadian Association of Law Teachers, and the Research Leader Award at York University, Dr Daum Shanks enjoys contributing to various Boards, including the Ontario Bar Association, the OBA Foundation, the CBA’s Law for the Future Fund, the Public Legal Education Association (Saskatchewan), and Saskatoon’s poverty law clinic (CLASSIC). She was appointed by the United Nations as a participant in the annual United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues. Dr Daum Shanks was a member of the Minister of Innovation’s Legislative Review Panel, the Minister of Heritage Advisory Panel on Online Harm, and in 2021 she was appointed the Prime Minister’s Advisory Panel for Supreme Court Appointments. Dr Signa A Daum Shanks is also a proud shareholder of the community-owned Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Dr Daum Shanks will be presenting some of her most recent research at 5:00 pm in the Coach House on Thursday, October 23, with her talk titled "The History of Lines, the Currency of Law, and the Future of Politics: Using Maps to Predict the Fullest Impact of Colonialism." To learn more about this event, visit the event page.
Dr Bradley will be in residence at Green College in late October 2025.