In the summer of 2018, Audra Diptee will taking up a one-month writing residency at the Bellagio Center in Italy that was awarded by the Rockefeller Foundation.  During her time there she will continue to work on her project New Strategies for the Battle Against Modern Day Slavery.  This is a continuation of her ongoing work and explores the ways in which historians can better contribute to the challenges facing the humanitarian sector in general and anti-slavery initiatives in particular.  Her project, which employs the methods of critical applied history, contemplates the ways in which power dynamics legitimate certain ways of knowing, interrogates the ahistorical tendencies of institutionally produced discourses, and problematizes how various notions of the past come into conflict. The Rockefeller Foundation awards these residencies to individuals who are on “a strong upward trajectory” and whose research aligns with the foundation’s efforts to “impact the lives of poor and vulnerable populations around the world.”