Shannon Dea

   Treasurer

    Provost and Vice-President, Academic and Research, Saint Mary's University

  Shannon Dea (she/they) is Provost and Vice-President, Academic and Research, and Professor of Philosophy at Saint Mary’s University (Halifax). A white settler, she originally hails from Anishanabek Algonquin and Kanyen'kehà:ka (Mohawk) territory, and now lives and works on the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq People. A former mature, first-generation university student, Shannon holds a Joint B.A. Hons. in Philosophy and Russian (Waterloo), an M.A. in Philosophy (Queen’s) and a PhD in Philosophy (Western).

Shannon is the author of Beyond the Binary: Thinking About Sex and Gender, 1st and 2nd. ed. (Broadview), and of numerous articles and book chapters on topics in social, feminist and applied philosophy and the history of philosophy. She was the creator and author of the University Affairs column, Dispatches on Academic Freedom (2018-2022), and has published and spoken extensively on academic freedom, campus freedom of expression issues, and university governance. 

Shannon has a long history of community leadership and public engagement. She is a recipient of the Ontario Women’s Directorate’s Leading Women Building Communities Award and of University of Waterloo’s Distinguished Teacher Award.