Past Event! Note: this event has already taken place.
CANCELLED: Audra Diptée: “Confronting Power in Knowledge Production: The Caribbean Historian’s Dilemma.”
March 27, 2020
| Cost: | Free |
| Audience: | Anyone |
| Contact Email: | history@carleton.ca |
This event has been cancelled as a result of the COVID-19. We apologize for the inconvenience and thank you for your understanding.
About the Lecture
Focusing specifically on the Caribbean, in this presentation Diptée will argue that history has been one of the ‘tools of empire’ used to maintain the unequal power relations in the region, and so historical work must be included as part of the process used to unmake these relations. She suggests that history can be written so that it does much more than provide context and perspective, but that it can also be used to develop historically informed narratives that counter those developed under the ‘tyranny of experts’ who purport to know the route the Caribbean should take to ‘catch up’ with the developed world. Her presentation will explore the ways in which history can be critically applied so that it becomes an instrument of social transformation that counters the hegemonic forces and discourses operating in the region.
About Audra Diptée
Audra A. Diptée is an author and academic. She has a Ph.D. (History) from the University of Toronto. She is also the Managing Director of the Canadian not-for-profit the History Watch Project. Her current projects strive to bridge the gap between discussions that take place in the academic and public realms. Her published work explores themes related to memory, critical applied history, slavery, childhood, humanitarianism and development in both the Caribbean and Africa.
Dr. Diptée has held research and writing fellowships at the Bellagio Center in Italy (The Rockefeller Foundation) and Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition. She has also been awarded a Chair and the post of Professeure Invitée at the Université de la Sorbonne Nouvelle – Paris 3 (l’IHEAL). Her research has been funded by a number of organizations and agencies including the Social Science Humanities Research Council of Canada, the Organization of American States, the John Hope Franklin Center at Duke University, and the Atlantic History Seminar at Harvard University.