John Shingler was born on 27 October 1936 in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. He was educated at Kingswood College and Rhodes University in Grahamstown, where he graduated in 1956 (B.A.). He subsequently studied Law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and International Relations at Yale University (M.A. 1964, Ph.D. 1973). His doctoral dissertation was on "Education and Political Order in South Africa 1902-1962", a study of the attempt to use education as a political instrument in a racially and ethnically mixed society.

Shingler was involved in South African politics during the 1950's as a member of the Liberal Party and as a leader of student opposition to University apartheid. He became President of the Students' Representative Council at the University of Witwatersrand in 1958 and served as President of the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS) in 1960. NUSAS was at that time the largest anti-apartheid organization having a membership open to all races in South Africa.

Shingler left South Africa in 1961 and subsequently lost both his South African passport and citizenship. He came to Canada in 1966 and obtained a Certificate of Identity from the Canadian Government in 1971.

John Shingler has taught at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the University of Western Ontario, the University of California, Berkeley, and in 1967 joined the Faculty of Arts at McGill University in Montreal, where he is an Associate Professor of Political Science.