Audra A. Diptée, Associate Professor of History, Carleton University, is a historian, author, and academic who specializes in Caribbean history. Her work reflects her interest in the ways historical thinking can advance social justice. She has won awards from The Rockefeller Foundation’s Bellagio Center (Italy), Yale University’s Gilder Lehrman Centre, the Université de Sorbonne Nouvelle (Paris) and the Social Science Humanities Research Council of Canada. Her current research project explores the relationship between power, history, and collective memory in the 20th century Caribbean. Her fellowship research project is titled Chained in Paradise: How history was used to change the future (A Cautionary Tale). Audra is the 2025-26 JHI Visiting Public Humanities Faculty Fellow.
What are your main research interests?
I specialize in the history of colonialism in the Caribbean. My work explores the ways in which historical methodologies can be used to advance social justice today. My past projects focused on various topics including slavery, childhood, race relations, and historical memory. My current work focuses on the Cold War and decolonization in the English-speaking Caribbean.
What project are you working on at the JHI and why did you choose it?
While at the JHI, I’m working on a book project and an accompanying website. I’m very passionate about this project as it addresses themes relevant to some of the contemporary issues we are now facing. In short, it offers an analysis of the uses of historical misinformation, propaganda, and censorship as a strategy of control during the Cold War era. It gives particular attention to the efforts of Britain and the United States in the english-speaking Caribbean. The project also explores the ways in which these efforts were subverted and information was re-interpreted, by anti-colonialists and anti-imperialists, as they worked to create counternarratives that supported their vision for what was possible during the post-colonial era. I post a newsletter and blogs on the project website Chained in Paradise.
How has your JHI Fellowship experience been so far?
It has been absolutely wonderful. The collegiality and generosity of spirit among the fellows has been remarkable. The support and kindness from the JHI team has been amazing. I am very grateful to be in an environment that is so conducive to the exchange of ideas across various disciplines. Our weekly luncheons always leave me inspired and energized.
Why do you believe the humanities are important?
In academic terms, the humanities gives us the tools to think critically and to imagine differently. It is the intellectual arena from which daring change can be made. At a more elemental level, the humanities gives us insight into the human experience. It helps us appreciate the diversity of human experiences. It also reminds us that at our core we are the same: we love, we dance, and we cry.
Can you share something you read/watched/listened to recently that you enjoyed/were inspired by?
I’ve been reading the poetry of the renowned Guyanese poet Martin Carter (1927-1997). He is well known for his work in Poems of Resistance from British Guiana that was published in 1954. It was written shortly after Britain sent thousands of troops to British Guiana to remove the elected government in 1953. I’m particularly fond of his poem ‘I clench my fist’ from that collection.
What's a fun fact about you?
I started weight lifting at 52 and did my first chin up at 54. I’m a committed francophile. I absolutely love speaking, reading, and even writing in french. I sometimes imagine that I’m a French poet and will write poetry from time to time. Unfortunately, even I have to admit that (despite my love of french), my french poems are both awful and laughable. I write them anyway …