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About Me

My work studies the history of human rights, transnational networks, Latin America, and international relations. In my book , Of Light and Struggle: Social Justice, Human Rights, and Accountability in Uruguay, I explore the origins and evolution of human rights discourse in Uruguay, particularly during its transition back to democratic rule. The research addresses issues of  transitional justice, the rise of the transnational human rights movement, and the shifting terrain of human rights in the 1970s and 1980s.

I am also the co-editor of Uruguay in Transnational Perspective (Routledge, 2023).

I have worked at various NGOs including the International Center for Transitional Justice, the New Media Advocacy Project, and Public Action Research. I am currently a country specialist for Amnesty International’s Southern Cone co-Group and an analyst at Freedom House. I was a Fulbright Scholar in Uruguay and have been published in Diplomacy & Statecraft, the Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies, the Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, Foreign Policy, NACLA, Upside Down World, Latin Correspondent and has contributed chapters to various edited volumes. I hold a PhD in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Recent Publications

“Opposing Affirmative Action: Covert and Coded Challenges to Racial Equality in Uruguay,” in The Right against Rights in Latin America, edited by Leigh Payne, Julia Zulver, and Simón Escoffier (New York: Oxford University Press, 2023). 

“The Road to Recognition: Afro-Uruguayan Activism and the Struggle for Visibility,” in Narratives of Mass Atrocity: Victims and Perpetrators in the Aftermath, edited by Sarah Federman and Ronald Niezen, 140-169 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2022).

“Operation Condor Trial: Transnational Prosecution and Its Effects,” in The Impact of Human Rights Prosecutions: Insights from European, Latin American, and African Post-Conflict Societies, edited by Rosario Figari Layus and Ulrike Capdepón (Leuven, Belgium: Leuven University Press, 2020). 

“Reagan and the Waning Years of Uruguay’s Military Rule: Democracy Promotion and the Redefinition of Human Rights,” in The Reagan Administration, The Cold War, and the Transition to Democracy Promotion, edited by Michael Schmidli and Robert Pee (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2019): 189-208

“Uruguay’s Long Transitional Decade and a New Era of Gendered Activism,” Journal of Iberian and Latin American Studies ​23 no. 1 (October 2017): 383-398.

“Silêncios, direitos humanos e o referendo uruguaio de 1989 sobre a lei de anistia,” TALLER: Revista de Sociedad, Cultura, Politica en America Latina 4 no. 5 (2015): 43-62.

“El Caso Gelman and the Battle Against Impunity in Uruguay,” in 40 Years is Nothing: History and Memory of the 1973 coups d’état in Uruguay and Chile, eds. Fernando Lopez and Pablo Leighton (UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015).

“Uruguay and the Re-conceptualization of Transitional Justice,” in Transitional Justice and Legacies of State Violence in Latin America, eds. Marcia Esparza and Nina Schneider (Lexington Books, 2015), 135-153.

“Sovereignty and Human Rights: Re-examining Carter’s Foreign Policy Towards the Third World,” Diplomacy & Statecraft (June 2014): 303-330.

Media Coverage

Have talked on radio about my work, been published in the Washington Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, NACLA, and more

Social Media

twitter.com/dsharnak

Country Focus

Uruguay, Argentina

Expertise by Geography

Latin America, United States

Expertise by Chronology

20th century, 21st century

Expertise by Topic

Diplomacy, Genocide, Government, Human Rights, Politics, Sports