PROFILE | Christina Dawkins
Christina Dawkins Research Associate
Christina Dawkins is a dedicated human rights activist and educator who has focused her career on combating human trafficking, punitive incarceration, and immigrant detention. She founded A4Abolitionist, a human rights consultancy; A4Academy, a social justice training resource for professionals; and the Abolition Project, a non-profit think-and-do tank for abolitionists. Christina’s innovative approach incorporates digital storytelling, systems mapping, and participatory research methods, centering the experiences of BIPOC women and girls in the fight against modern-day slavery.
With over a decade of experience at the intersection of education and activism, Christina has developed programming and curricula for institutions such as Brown University, the Alliance for Higher Education in Prison, and The New School. Her seven years in higher education included teaching college-in-prison, advising students, and developing programs. She founded two groundbreaking initiatives: the Justice-in-Education Initiative at Columbia University, the first on-campus credit-bearing program for formerly incarcerated people, and the Lang Prison Initiative at The New School, the first in-person college program at Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.
Christina has led workshops on abolishing modern-day slavery for prestigious institutions, including the Oxford Consortium for Human Rights, Yale, the Congressional Hunger Center, Harvard University, and the AIDS Foundation. Her background in theatre has also informed her work, leading her to build arts and education programs for Creative Time and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center. She has produced several arts and justice events featuring renowned artists such as Claudia Rankine, Bryan Shih, and Phil Collins.
Christina holds an M.A. in Human Rights Studies from Columbia University and a B.A. in Communications from Northwestern University.