Dawn Wink, PhD

Dr. Dawn Wink is an educator and writer whose work explores the tensions and beauty of language, culture, and place. Wink’s transdisciplinary professional journey includes many years in multilingual and international education, along with a dedication to creative writing. She brings these passions together through teaching, presenting, and publishing.

Dr. Wink’s educational journey includes a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations, Spanish, and German at the University of California/Davis, Master of Arts in Crosscultural and Bilingual Leadership from California State University/Sacramento, and PhD in Transformative Studies from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Her doctoral studies focused on ecolinguistics and linguistic human rights and the transdisciplinary exploration of language and landscape through the lenses of wildness, beauty, and imagination.

Wink has a passion for methods and theoretical frameworks. She frequently uses the methodology of Scholarly Personal Narrative (SPN) and theoretical framework of Lilyology in her research. Wink has an upcoming chapter “Beyond the Brick Wall: Transdisciplinary and Creative Research through Scholarly Personal Narrative and Lilyology” in the forthcoming text Creative Research Methods (Bristol Press). Wink’s other publications include the novel Meadowlark, awarded the Women Writing the West WILLA Award for Historical Fiction/Finalist, High Plains Book Award for Woman Writer/Finalist, and NM/AZ Book Awards for Historical Fiction/Finalist and Teaching Passionately: What’s Love Got To Do With It, co-written with Joan Wink. Other publications include, “Raven’s Time: Critical Literacy in the American Southwest,” “Wild Waters: Landscapes of Language,” and “Language, Culture, and Land: Lenses of Lilies.”

Dr. Wink is Academic Director of the Department of Teacher Education at Santa Fe Community College. She presents regularly on pedagogy, education, creative writing, ecolinguistics, linguistic human rights, and research methods. She lives with her family in Santa Fe, New Mexico.