Matthew Dawkins

Matthew Dawkins is a Jamaican author, poet, and equity, diversity, and inclusion researcher. As a second-year student at Western University Matthew is pursuing his BA with a double major in the School for Advanced Studies in the Arts and Humanities (SASAH) and English Language and English Literature, along with a Certificate in Practical Spanish and a Scholar’s Electives Module.

Currently, Matthew operates as the Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Student Coordinator with Research Western wherein he collects, manages, and utilizes data based on marginalized groups at the university to inform better inclusion practices. In the past, Matthew has sat on the University Students’ Council as the Ethnocultural Support Services’ Coordinator, organizing equity, diversity and inclusion programming and campaigns that platform the experiences, issues, and voices of students of colour on campus. Similarly, on the Arts and Humanities Students’ Council, as Equity Commissioner as well as SASAH Department Representative, Matthew oversees programming and policy that fosters equity among all in-faculty students and represents the concerns of the students in his program, respectively.

His first research paper ‘Towards Engaged Educational Practices Regarding Decolonisation, Anti-Racism, and Inclusion’ is currently the pioneering thought behind Western University’s Inaugural Teaching with Humanity Faculty Retreat.

Matthew’s debut novel, Until We Break, is currently under development and will be published by Wattpad Books in Winter 2022.

Banner Image: Western University’s USC Ethnocultural Support Services Team

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The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial.