Chair and Associate Professor
Department of Interior Architecture and Design
Curriculum Vitae (CV)
Areas of responsibility include chairing the department, teaching select classes of upper level undergraduate and graduate students in interior architecture and interior design project solutions, graphic techniques for quick sketching, design ideation, and project brainstorming. Dawkins chairs and is a member of MFA thesis committees.
Over thirty years of diversified experience as a corporate officer, architect, designer, and university professor define my career in the world of architecture and interior design. After receiving both my Bachelor of Arts in Design and Master of Architecture degrees at Clemson University, I went on to practice both architecture and interior design as a licensed architect and corporate officer with design firms in Atlanta, GA and Vail, CO. My twenty years in professional practice featured highly successful, award-winning commercial, hospitality, single-family and multi-family residential projects of various scopes and scales. That time was marked by a proven desire and ability to contribute to successful company operations, positive corporate profitability, critical client relations, project design, staff development, standards implementation and project construction administration. My subsequent years in higher education have allowed me to explore opportunities for research, creative activity, and service that add to and reinforce my ability to preach what I practice while leading and mentoring up-and-coming young designers.
Master of Architecture, Clemson University, 1988
Bachelor of Arts in Design, Clemson University, 1986
Graduate and undergraduate interior design studios, graphic techniques studios (hand sketching and hybrid hand/digital drawing), experimental graphics, and internships.
Dawkins’ primary research interest focuses on the notion of thinking through drawing – graphic facilitation, communication, and mediation of ideas through hand-drawing techniques and their realization in traditional hand and digital hybrid forms of computer aided design. Secondary research currently involves the analysis of and instruction in hand sketching skills through the cognitive framework of expertise theory.
Current research pursuits are centered on a timely examination of the role AI (machine learning) can/does play in conceptual design, its growing ability to generate rich and robust imagery in that process, and the impact it has on the beginning design student’s growth and development. This ‘calculator moment’ of the 2020’s provides a rich opportunity for analysis, discussion, and reflection on the role of both humans and machine learning devices in interior design both educationally and professionally. Notions of morals and ethics will be debated and challenged. Authenticity and originality will be called into question. Indeed, even the role of the designer in the design process will come under scrutiny.
I currently serve in the role of Department Chair, is a member of the College Leadership Team, and represents the Department in the University’s Academic Leadership Group. Additionally, I co-coordinate the Department’s Internship program, lead the Department’s annual Career Shaping Event each spring, and am a liaison to the University’s Internship Council.