James Dawes

"Cultures of Human Rights" draws upon literary treatments of atrocity and my fieldwork in the international human rights community to answer two primary questions: How do we make coherent narratives out of atrocity? And what are the ethical risks and obligations of doing so? The project reveals the inner workings and cultural significance of what I am identifying as the emerging global genre of human rights fiction and analyzes key ethical conflicts in the representational practices of humanitarian organizations.