In collaboration with the conference planning committee, the DC History Center is excited to announce that the 48th DC History Conference will return March 31 – April 2, 2022 to the newly renovated Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Downtown.
The DC History Conference, traditionally held in November, is shifting to the spring to better serve DC educators and students. Co-presented with the DC Public Library and sponsored by American University, the three-day event will be offered at no cost to attendees for the first time, thanks to a grant from HumanitiesDC.
The Letitia Woods Brown Memorial Lecture will take place at the Charles Sumner Museum and Archives on Thursday, March 31. Presentations by leading scholars and researchers of DC history will be held at the Library on Friday, April 1, along with the History Network, which showcases a wide range of community-based history practitioners. Panels continue, along with poster sessions and opportunities for additional programs like workshops and tours, on Saturday, April 2.
Reflecting lessons learned from the all-virtual 47th conference, the 2022 conference will be a hybrid event with select panels available in person and online simultaneously. This innovation is possible thanks to the state-of-the-art equipment now available at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library. American Sign Language interpretation will also be offered. After the conference, recorded panels will be available on YouTube with closed captioning. These important additions support the conference’s accessibility goals.
The DC History Conference is presented thanks to a volunteer planning committee representing a broad range of organizations and individuals—academic scholars as well as community researchers and local museums. They also represent the field’s diversity and sheer energy. Partners include Arlington Historical Society, Charles Sumner School Museums and Archives, DC Historic Preservation Office, DC Office of Planning, Heurich House Museum, HumanitiesDC, Liu Consultants, Marymount University, Public History Program at American University, Smithsonian Institution Archives, and more.
The 2022 conference is made possible thanks to a grant from Humanities DC as part of the “Humanities Grant Program,” an initiative funded by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.