Signa A. Daum Shanks is a lawyer, legal scholar and historian. Before becoming an academic, Dr. Daum Shanks worked at several federal and provincial government departments and for a nationally based law firm in Toronto. She also worked for a national Indigenous organization. She has served as a Director on several municipal, provincial and national Boards for community heritage, transition housing, legal aid clinics, alumni associations and the legal profession.
In her research, Dr. Daum Shanks has focused on s.35 litigation, history, discrimination, legal history and historical evidence for constitutional cases. She also analyses using various topics from political economy and public choice theory. Dr. Daum Shanks’ teaching experience includes Indigenous Studies courses, legal history, law and economics, game theory, torts, Indigenous rights litigation, Indigenous legal traditions and courses focused on addressing Calls to Action 27 and 28 in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Final Report.
Her publishing is both interdisciplinary and aimed at reaching the legal profession. With work in journals such as the Canadian Bar Review, Canadian Literature, Osgoode Hall Law Journal, Literary Review of Canada, aboriginal studies, Dalhousie Law Journal, Folklore, Indigenous Law Journal, Canadian Women Studies, and the Lakehead Law Journal, Dr. Daum Shanks has received recognition as a campus Research Leader at York University twice, and she won the Scholarly Paper Award from the Canadian Association of Law Teachers. For these efforts, the Women Lawyers Association of Ontario has presented her with its Presidents Award.
In her outreach beyond campus, Dr. Daum Shanks has served as an advisor on several federal parliamentary matters. In 2021, she was appointed by the Prime Minister of Canada to be on the Advisory Panel for Supreme Court Appointments. She has also acted as a member of the Broadcasting and Telecommunications Legislative Review Panel in 2019 and is currently a member of the Expert Advisory Group on Online Safety from 2022 until 2026 as appointed by the Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture.
She was previously a Visiting Scholar at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Law and has taught for Monash University at their campus in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. In 2025, Dr. Daum Shanks was the John Grace Memorial Visitor in Residence at Green College, University of British Columbia.
She has her B.A. (Hons) from the University of Saskatchewan, her M.A. from Western University, her LL.B. from Osgoode Hall Law School, her LL.M from the University of Toronto and her Ph.D. from Western University.