We Are Always Asking Questions.

DAWNING is a creative research lab exploring pressing issues in overlooked communities around the world. Our investigations span topics such as migration, displacement, women’s rights, indigenous rights, climate, and conflict resolution. We combine social science research with photography, illustration, writing, and film to produce narratives that appear in books, exhibitions, documentary films, and the press.

Our work is interdisciplinary and deeply collaborative, developed in partnership with foundations, international nonprofits, and multilateral organizations.

DAWNING is not an advocacy organization, a communications agency, or a content production studio. While our work may include elements of research, storytelling, and public engagement, our focus is not on campaigns or messaging.

We are an independent creative research lab dedicated to producing rigorous, long-term investigations that engage the communities we work with and contribute to public understanding of complex issues.

DAWNING is open to working anywhere in the world, though much of our work focuses on Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Since 2014, our projects have taken our team across Mexico, Peru, Costa Rica, Cuba, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Spain, Moldova, Ghana, Niger, Kenya, Malaysia, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, and Mongolia.

DAWNING’s daily work is carried out by a small core team that leads our investigations and fieldwork. We are supported by a dedicated Board of Directors that helps guide the organization’s long-term direction. Since our founding, more than 200 professionals from over 25 countries have collaborated with DAWNING on different projects. What unites everyone who joins this work is a commitment to careful collaboration —listening, learning from, and respecting one another.

DAWNING works primarily with foundations, international nonprofit organizations, and multilateral institutions. Recent partners include The Global Fund to End Modern Slavery, Water.org, Newton Europe, and the World Bank Group. DAWNING has also received grants from the Open Society Foundations and the National Endowment for the Humanities. If you are interested in exploring opportunities to work with us, we invite you to learn more about our approach and get in touch.

Every project is designed to reach multiple audiences. DAWNING partners with the press, book publishers, and cultural institutions to share our work. Our press stories have appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, Al Jazeera, Politico Magazine, Roads & Kingdoms, BBC, The Guardian, El País, and Die Zeit, among others. Our investigations also develop into book-length works and are conceived to live across formats, including books, exhibitions, and film.

DAWNING helps people and institutions understand complex social and environmental challenges in ways that conventional research often cannot. Our investigations bring rigorous social science together with photography and other visual tools to document how these issues are lived and experienced.

The knowledge we produce helps partners see realities on the ground more clearly, enhancing strategies, shaping policies and programs, and helping communicate complex issues to wider audiences. By circulating our work through the press, books, exhibitions, and film, we turn careful field research into knowledge that can inform public dialogue and civic engagement.

We believe that social science can be both rigorous and accessible. Our work combines scientific inquiry with photography, illustration, and other visual forms to help humanize complex issues and make them understandable to wider audiences.

Every investigation begins with careful field research and close engagement with the people whose lives shape the work. Our goal is to present evidence in ways that are accurate, dignified, and compelling enough to bring social science back into public conversation.

Read more about our approach and how we work across disciplines to explore complex realities through open-ended inquiry.

DAWNING is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered in Washington, DC (EIN 99-2611915). We receive grants and donations from foundations, individuals and organizations aligned with DAWNING’s mission and values, and we regularly collaborate with other global nonprofits. If you are interested in supporting DAWNING as a donor or partner, please contact us.

Yes. DAWNING is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization registered in Washington, DC (EIN 99-2611915).

We are a small and deeply committed team, and we welcome hearing from people who are interested in our work.

If you would like to engage DAWNING, please get in touch. We are selective about the projects we take on, but we remain accessible and open to exploring new opportunities.

If you are interested in joining the DAWNING team, please contact us. We cannot respond to every message, but if we believe you may be a good fit for a future project, we will reach out when an opportunity arises.

No. DAWNING is an independent, non-partisan organization and we do not advocate for specific policies or political positions.

Our role is to conduct rigorous research and present our findings as clearly and fairly as possible. By making complex realities visible and understandable, we aim to support informed public dialogue and allow people and institutions to draw their own conclusions.