Research Area(s)
- Indigenous kinship and citizenship orders
- Indigenous legal and political orders
- Treaty constitutionalism
- Indigenist Research Methodologies
About me
Dr. Damien Lee is a proud member of Fort William First Nation – an Anishinaabe community located on the north shore of Lake Superior, just a stone’s throw from the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario. He was adopted into his rez as a baby, grew up on-reserve, and is an active sugar busher there.
In 2025, Damien returned to Indigenous Studies at USask after seven years in Ontario, where he held the Canada Research Chair in Biskaabiiyang and Indigenous Political Resurgence at Toronto Metropolitan University. His research focuses on the resurgence of Indigenous political and legal orders, Indigenous research methodologies, and what decolonization looks like through Indigenist paradigms. In 2024-2025, he held the Leverhulme Visiting Professorship hosted by the Treatied Spaces Research Group at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.
Publications
Lee, Damien. Wiitkamaaganak: Adoption and the Resurgence of Anishinaabe Citizenship Law. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. (Accepted for publication)
Lee, Damien. “Remaining Unreconciled: Philanthropy and Indigenous Governance in Canada.” aboriginal policy studies 10, no.2 (2023): 3-32.
Lee, Damien & Kahente Horn-Miller. “Between Membership and Belonging: Life under Section 10 of the Indian Act.” Yellowhead Institute. 2022.
Lee, Damien. “Adoption Constitutionalism: Anishinaabe Citizenship Law at Fort William First Nation.” Alberta Law Review 56, no.3 (2019): 785-816.
Lee, Damien & Kahente Horn-Miller, eds. “Adoption and Indigenous Citizenship Orders.” Special issue, AlterNative: An International Journal of Indigenous Peoples 14, no. 4 (2018).
Education & Training
PhD, Indigenous Studies, University of Manitoba (2017)
Master of Arts, Indigenous Governance, University of Victoria (2011)
Honours Bachelor of Arts, Indigenous Studies, Trent University (2010)