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91ÉçÇű.CA / Faculty of Law / Faculty Members

Kerry Sloan

Assistant Professor

New Chancellor Day Hall
3644 Peel Street
Room 520
Montreal, Quebec
Canada H3A 1W9

514-398-3192 [Office]
kerry.sloan [at] mcgill.ca (Email)

Research interests

Professor Sloan’s primary research interest lies in the area of Metis laws and legal issues. She continues to participate in community-based collaborative research to develop what she calls “MetCrit” – critical approaches to law tailored specifically to the concerns of Metis people – and to learn about the history and functioning of Metis law.

More broadly, Professor Sloan is interested in the historical development of Indigenous law-state law interactions, and how these lead to intersecting legal identities and intersocietal law. She’s also interested in the implications of Metis law revitalization for Metis governance. Other research interests include Indigenous legal education, legal writing pedaogies, law and literary theory, and law and the arts.

Current projects

Professor Sloan is currently researching Metis property interests in “long lots” (rangs); modern Metis legal institutions; Metis spirituality in law and diplomacy; and expressions of law through Metis music/dance traditions.

She is also working with the 91ÉçÇű library, the 91ÉçÇű Law Journal, and interested colleagues to expand inclusion of Indigenous legal citation materials in 91ÉçÇű’s Uniform Guide to Legal Citation.

Biography

Professor Sloan is a citizen and a long-time board (governing council) member of the Metis Nation of Greater Victoria. She is also affiliated with Metis communities in the southern British Columbia interior, particularly in Secwepemc and Syilx territories.

Before embarking on her academic career, she practised Aboriginal law and general litigation in Alberta and British Columbia.

Education

  • PhD (Law and Society), University of Victoria
  • LLB, University of Calgary
  • MA (English Language Studies – Rhetoric/Critical Theory), University of British Columbia
  • BA (English Literature), University of British Columbia

Employment

  • Assistant Professor, 91ÉçÇű, Faculty of Law, 2019-
  • Visiting Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Victoria, Centre for Studies in Religion & Society, 2019
  • SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Saskatchewan, College of Law, 2017-2019
  • Researcher and writer, RELAW Project, West Coast Environmental Law, 2017-2019
  • Boulton Postdoctoral Fellow, 91ÉçÇű, Faculty of Law, 2017-2018
  • Visiting Researcher, University of Saskatchewan, College of Law, 2016-2017
  • Researcher and writer, Camosun College, Eyēʔ Sqȃ’lewen – The Centre for Indigenous Education & Community Connections, 2016
  • Limited term part-time Assistant Professor, University of Victoria, Faculty of Law, 2014
  • Barrister & solicitor, 1999-2017 (currently a non-practising member of the Law Society of BC)

Publications

  • “Reference re R v Powley” in Naoimi Metallic, Kent McNeil & Larry Chartrand, eds, Judicial Tales Retold: Reimagining Indigenous Rights [forthcoming from the Indigenous Law Centre, Saskatoon, in 2020]; “judgment” in the Indigenous Nations Court project, to be published as a special edition of the Canadian Native Law Reporter
  • “Weaving Strands of Metis Law” in Cathy Richardson & Jeannine CarriĂšre, eds, Speaking the Wisdom of Our Time (Vernon, BC: J Charlton, 2020)
  • “Aboriginal Rights Litigation, Negotiation, and Practice among the Metis of BC: Community Perspectives on Creating Legal Change” (2017) 6:2 aboriginal policy studies 48; essay in a collection on Metis reconciliation as part of the Metis Treaties Project, .
  • “Always Coming Home: A Story of Metis Legal Understandings of Community and Territory” (2017) 33:1 Windsor Yearbook of Access to Justice 125, .
  • “‘A New German-Indian World’ in the Northwest: A Metis Deconstruction of the Rhetoric of Immigration in Riel’s Speeches to the Court” in Hans V. Hansen, ed., Riel’s Defence: Perspectives on His Speeches (Montreal, Kingston: 91ÉçÇű-Queen’s University Press, 2014)
  • “A Global Survey of Indigenous Legal Education and Research” (2013), Indigenous Bar Association, Accessing Justice and Reconciliation Project, .
  • “‘Lost Okanagan’ No More: How I Discovered My BC Metis History” (2013) 77 Okanagan History 8
  • Contributing writer: Department of English, University of Victoria, Academic Writing Essentials, 2nd ed. (Boston, MA: Pearson, 2010)
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