The DC History Center is pleased to announce that DC historian Sarah Shoenfeld will serve as Editor of the forthcoming issue of Washington History on Home Rule and Statehood to be published this fall. Sarah’s full biography is provided below.
Editor Pat Scallen and Managing Editor Kasey Sease are stepping down at this time. We are deeply thankful to Pat and Kasey not only for editing and producing the last four issues (or five in Kasey’s case!), but also for being beloved members of our DC history community. Pat and Kasey are to be commended for a stellar run over the last few years.
Sarah will pick up where Pat leaves off. Sarah is an accomplished independent scholar and public historian who has published seven essays and reviews in Washington History to date. We are currently seeking to fill the managing editor contract.
In the meantime, Advisor Jane F. Levey will support the Editorial Team, consisting of Photo Editor John DeFerrari, Review Editor Cindy Gueli, and Designer Anne Masters.
You can reach the Washington History team at editor@dchistory.org with any questions.
Sarah Jane Shoenfeld
Sarah Jane Shoenfeld is an independent scholar and public historian specializing in DC history. Her work addresses DC’s racialized housing landscape and planning regime; historic preservation; and local organizing for civil rights and Black self-determination.
Sarah co-founded the digital public history project Mapping Segregation in Washington DC, which is documenting the former extent of racially restricted housing in the nation’s capital along with other historic mechanisms of segregation and serial displacement. The project won a 2019 Award for Excellence in Historic Preservation and continues to garner local and national attention from scholars, activists, educators and others interested in how systemically racist housing policies have shaped the cities we live in today.
She is also a founder of the DC Legacy Project, dedicated to uplifting DC’s Black-led struggle for land and housing at one of the city’s most important sites for commemorating this history, Barry Farm Dwellings in Southeast DC. From 2014-2023, Sarah also co-led the historical research firm Prologue DC.
Sarah conducts research for exhibitions and films, documentation of historic sites, oral history projects, and walking tours. Recent projects include the essay “Reparative Justice for DC: Why Reparations are Due and How to Pay for Them,” research and writing for “Up from the People: Protest and Change in D.C.” a permanent exhibit at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library; landmark nominations and a National Register multiple property study on sites related to DC’s Black civil rights history and the history of public housing; and the 20th Century African American Civil Rights Tour for the DC Historic Preservation Office.
Sarah was the lead historian for several DC Neighborhood Heritage Trails and has produced historical essays and other content for the Smithsonian Institution, the National Archives, the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, American Experience (PBS), WGBH-TV, and Blackside, among others. Sarah received an M.A. in History and a Certificate in Public History from Northeastern University. She grew up and lives in DC.