Dawes received his B.A. and M.A. in Spanish from the University of Northern Iowa. He received his Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literature with a concentration in Latin American Literature from the University of Washington.

Dawes is a democratic socialist. His classes are on twentieth-century Latin American literature and culture and literary theory. He teaches courses on the culture of Chile during the Popular Unity government in Chile, the 60s in Latin America, the Latin American avant-garde, and on Latin American poetry. He has published articles and books on Latin American poetry, particularly on Pablo Neruda, Octavio Paz, Vicente Huidobro, César Vallejo, Ernesto Cardenal, Mario Benedetti, among others.

• Critical Approaches to Literature and Culture
• Literature and Culture of Latin America III

His publications include:

• Aesthetics and Revolution: Nicaraguan Poetry, 1979-1990. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1993. ISBN 0-8166-2146-2.
• Verses Against the Darkness: Pablo Neruda's Poetry and Politics. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-8387-5643-3.
• Mario Benedetti, escritor uruguayo contemporáneo: estudios sobre su compromiso literario y político / Mario Benedetti, Contemporary Uruguayan Author: Studies on His Literary and Political Commitments. Lewiston: Edwin Mellen Press, 2008. ISBN 0-7734-5202-8.
• Poetas ante la modernidad: las ideas estéticas y políticas de Huidobro, Vallejo, Neruda y Paz. Madrid: Editorial Fundamentos, 2009. ISBN 84-245-1193-X.
• Multiforme y comprometido. Neruda después de 1956. Santiago de Chile: RIL Editores, 2015. ISBN 978-956-01-0147-1.

• Greg Dawes' academic homepage at NC State University
• Homepage of A Contracorriente
• Homepage of Editorial A Contracorriente
• "En torno al Realismo y al Vanguardismo en las Residencias," conference presentation at Pablo Neruda Foundation, Santiago, Chile, October 2009