James Dawes

James Dawes teaches narrative across the disciplines. His areas of research expertise include human rights, artificial intelligence, and the ethics of storytelling in fields ranging from creative writing to video game design. He is the author of several books, including Evil Men, winner of the International Human Rights Book Award, and That the World May Know: Bearing Witness to Atrocity, Independent Publisher Book Award Finalist. He has written for or appeared as the feature guest on media outlets ranging from National Public Radio, the BBC, and Bulgarian National Radio to the Boston Globe, the Chronicle of Higher Education, and CNN.com. He was a Junior Fellow at the Society of Fellows, Harvard University. He received his Ph.D. in English Literature from Harvard University and his M. Phil. from Cambridge University.

In the News

• UN fails to agree on ‘killer robot’ ban as nations pour billions in Autonomous weapons research – James Dawes
  The Conversation, Reprinted by over two dozen other news outlets. (December 20, 2021)

• The world can halt an arms race over killer robots. Why is the Biden administration standing in the way? – James Dawes
  The Washington Post, Opinion section (December 16, 2021)

• An autonomous robot may have already killed people – here’s how the weapons could be more destabilizing than nukes – James Dawes
  The Conversation (September 29, 2021)
• The case for and against autonomous weapons systems – James Dawes
  Nature Human Behaviour (August 21, 2017)
• To understand perpetrators we must care about them – James Dawes
  openDemocracy (March. 22, 2017)
• Graphic Violence: When Is It Ethical to look? – James Dawes
  Australian Broadcasting Corporation RN (Apr. 9, 2015)
• Are We Prepared to Bear the Moral Paradox of Evil? – James Dawes
  Australian Broadcasting Corporation (Sept. 5, 2014)
• Can We Forgive War Criminals? – James Dawes
  TTBOOK interview – Wisconsin Public Radio (Sept. 13, 2013)
• ‘Evil Men’ by James Dawes
  The Washington Post (Aug. 9, 2013)
• Understanding Evil
  The Chronicle of Higher Education (July 1, 2013)
• Evil Men: James Dawes
  CBC Radio’s The Current (June 6, 2013)
• Speaking of Evil
  The Brooklyn Rail (June 3, 2013)
• Is Empathy Bad?
  Harvard University Press Blog (June 3, 2013)
• Appearance on Moncrieff
  Newstalk Ireland (May 31, 2013)
• Evil Men by James Dawes
  Times Higher Education (May 30, 2013)
• Why a man eats another man’s heart
  CNN Opinion (May 15, 2013)
• Any good from evil?
  WNYC Radio – The Brian Lehrer Show (May 13, 2013)
• James Dawes describes the complexity of war criminals in ‘Evil Men’
  MinnPost (May 1, 2013)
• Book pick: ‘Evil Men’ by James Dawes
  Minnesota Public Radio (April 30, 2013)
• “Conversations with evil men”
  This article about the book Evil Men appeared in the Boston Globe (April 28, 2013)
• Book Review: Evil Men
  South China Morning Post (April 21, 2013)

Amazon author page

Presentations

• Big Questions: What happened to human rights?
• MacTalks video: What’s It All About
• Write Well series video: Every Sentence is a Sandwich

Digital Student Projects

• Unediting Dickinson
• alt lit: The Modern Gothic

Areas of Study

• American literature
• Countercultures
• Human rights
• Literary and language theory
• Violence and trauma
• Literature and Philosophy
• Artificial Intelligence

 Fall 2023 Courses 

• ENGL 137-01 Novel
• ENGL 150-01 Introduction to Creative Writing

Spring 2024 Courses

• ENGL 224-01 Video Games: Coding and Narrative
• ENGL 265-01 Literature and Human Rights
• ENGL 294-01 Dickinson
• ENGL 401-01 Projects in Literary Research

Selected Works in Macalester’s Digital Commons