The DC History Center + HumanitiesDC is pleased to announce the return of Washington History magazine in fall 2027, with a new editor at the helm: frequent contributor and guest editor of the 2024 DC Home Rule special issue, Sarah Jane Shoenfeld. Longtime DC History Center Deputy Director Anne McDonough will serve as managing editor.
Back in the fall of 2025, we announced a pause in production so that we could take time to plan a sustainable future for the magazine. We convened a task force, researched how other organizations are tackling the shifting publishing landscape, assessed our internal capacity, and explored several partnership models.
We are now *drumroll* thrilled to share that Washington History plans to publish in partnership with the University of North Carolina Press, a steadfast publisher of DC history scholarship, most notably Chocolate City: A History of Race and Democracy in the Nation’s Capital, by former Washington History editor Chris Myers Asch and longtime editorial board member George Derek Musgrove. Our biannual magazine will join UNCP’s impressive roster of 18 journals, marketed and distributed nationally and internationally.
Under this arrangement, we’ll continue to welcome submissions for both long-form articles and short features on the history and culture of Washington, DC and its surroundings. We plan to maintain the high bar for scholarship that readers have enjoyed from Washington History since 1989 while also increasing our reach to the wider audience of readers who are hungry for our city’s stories. UNC Press will handle the publication’s full-color redesign, production, and distribution. We’ll publish a print edition for members, but our distribution will grow by joining platforms such as Project MUSE, for newly published issues, in addition to maintaining our presence on JSTOR, where searches for current and back issues translate to more than 52,000 views each year.
We invite you to explore our new submissions portal, where potential contributors can learn more about our guidelines and dates for submitting to Washington History. We are pleased to be rolling out this formal process for submitting manuscripts in keeping with the standards of other scholarly journals.
Finally, Washington History will continue to include advertising to support publication of this beloved and not-inexpensive-to-produce evergreen resource, but please stay tuned for ways to show your support and ensure a successful future for the magazine!
