Dawes teaches American literature. His latest book, That the World May Know - Bearing Witness to Atrocity, tells the powerful and moving story of the successes and failures of the modern human rights movement. Drawing on firsthand accounts from fieldworkers around the world, the book gives a painfully clear picture of the human cost of confronting inhumanity in our day. An earlier book, The Language of War, explores U.S. literature and culture from the Civil War through World War II, examining how the violence of war affects literary, legal and philosophical representations and how those representations affect violence. Dawes has also published articles on a variety of subjects including human rights law, literature and medical studies, Shakespeare, gender and sexuality. EDUCATION: B.A., University of Pennsylvania M.Phil, University of Cambridge, Kings College, England M.A., Ph.D., Harvard University Jr. Fellow, Society of Fellows, Harvard University Dawes has been teaching at Macalester since 2001.
Expertise
- American literature
- Countercultures
- Human rights
- Literary and language theory
- Violence and trauma
- Literature and philosophy
Honors & Awards
- American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS)/Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Junior Faculty Fellow
- Lilly Fellow, Macalester College (received Lilly Course Development Award, Fall 2001)
- William F. Milton Fund Recipient, 2001 (a $24,000 research grant from the Harvard Medical School to fund research in language theory)
- Mellon Dissertation Finishing Year Fellowship, 1997-1998
- Dexter Traveling Fellowship, Summer 1997
- Distinguished Teaching Awards: Spring 1996, Fall 1996, Spring 1997
- Member of the Derek Bok Center's Senior Teaching Fellows Program, 1996-1997 (a workshop for teaching fellows in the arts and sciences who received the highest ratings in University-wide evaluations; met biweekly to research pedagogical techniques and to promote the quality of teaching at Harvard through such initiatives as the Senior Teaching Fellows Mentoring Program)
- Fellow in the John F. Kennedy School of Government Program in Ethics, 1994-1995 (fully funds one year of independent research; Fellows work in association with distinguished academics in the fields of law, business, medicine, and the humanities)
- Mellon Fellowship for Summer Research, 1995
- Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, 1994-1998
- English Prize Fellowship, 1992-1994
- Thouron Scholarship, 1991-1992 (academic/diplomatic scholarship designed to foster Anglo-American relations; fully funds one year of post-graduate study)