Get some tips from the DC History Center’s KNOW BEFORE YOU GO email. All registrants as of noon on Tuesday, April 1 received this email.

Conference registration is free! Friday, Saturday, and Sunday keynotes are recorded and posted to YouTube with closed captioning after the conference.

For accommodations
Thursday: Contact conference@dchistory.org ten (10) days in advance to request reasonable accommodation, including ASL interpretation for the oral history symposium.

Friday-Sunday: ASL interpretation will be provided at the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday keynotes and at one panel per session based on day-of attendee request. To request additional reasonable accommodation, including ASL interpretation during the network or showcase, please contact the DC Public Library’s Center for Accessibility seven (7) days in advance at 202-727-2142 or by emailing DCPLaccess@dc.gov. These services were made possible in part by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

The conference is free to attend! You may register at the door, but pre-registration makes check-in faster.

We encourage you to consider a donation of $25, $50, or $100 to support the conference.

Thursday conference activities take place at the DC History Center at 801 K Street NW.

Friday-Sunday activities take place at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library at 901 G St NW.

For both locations, street parking is metered and limited. We encourage taking public transportation, either the bus or the metro (Gallery Place-Chinatown (red/green/yellow) or Metro Center (orange/blue/silver).

Welcome to DC! Eaton DC (1201 K St NW) is the conference hotel partner. Book your stay at this boutique hotel for convenient proximity to both the DC History Center (0.3 mi) and Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library (0.5 mi).

For a discounted stay, use our code: DC History Center.

Yes, we invite volunteers to assist during the conference! Email us at conference@dchistory.org for more information.

History is not an exclusive club, and in fact our understanding of the past is made stronger by including multiple perspectives. That’s why we strive to offer panels with a range of perspectives, balancing lived experience with scholarly study, and valuing what we learn from different ways of knowing. Community-based history encourages the perspective of community members, gives equal weight to lived experience, values memory, and creates space for dialogue. The DC History Conference is for everyone with an interest in our city.

The “For Educators” pages identify relevant standards for each session and feature teacher professional development opportunities (49-53).

Two types of panels appear in the program. Some panels are proposed as a single submission. Others, “combined panels,” include multiple submissions which the committee groups under a common theme. You can identify this distinction in the program where 2-3 presentation titles are listed underneath the session name and description.

This year, we’re excited to bring back film screenings and continue creative expressions—a submission type we created with the arts in mind and to provide unique program formats with creative approaches to learning about the past.

Special features—including the History Network, DC History Showcase, the Authors’ Corner, and Friday Celebration—are community-building social opportunities that provide time for attendees to connect with organizations, research projects, scholars, students, and other history enthusiasts about their work.

The DC History Conference releases our call for submissions in the fall, casting a wide net to DC history researchers, educators, and enthusiasts to submit their topics. Conference committee volunteers make the final decisions on all submissions. The result is a conference lineup covering a wide variety of topics, time periods, and historical approaches. We can’t include every important and timely topic in this one conference, but we do our best to create a program representative of what issues and histories are on Washingtonians’ minds.

While “history” is at the heart of this conference, it is interdisciplinary. The arts, archaeology, sociology, environmental science, political science, and other areas of study appear across the program. But at the heart of the content is the importance of using the past to understand the present and build a more justice-oriented future.

Be on the lookout for the call for submissions in fall 2024.

The planning committee is a group of dedicated volunteers supported by staff at the DC History Center. Learn who sits on the committee on the “Community” tab. Each volunteer has expertise across a variety of fields, all with a love for DC history.

New committee members join the committee at the start of the planning year in anticipation of the next annual conference. If you want to be involved with the committee, email us at conference@dchistory.org and specify you want to volunteer on the planning committee.

The DC History Conference is 100% free to attend and is run by a volunteer committee. As a result, donations and sponsorships are vital to sustaining the conference from year to year. If you want to support the future of the conference, there are a few ways you can get involved!

If you would like to make a gift of your choosing, you can donate online. Every dollar counts, and donations of all amounts are welcome and appreciated! Donations by mail can be sent to the DC History Center at 801 K St NW, Washington DC 20001, and should include their designation toward the DC History Conference.

For quick bites, we recommend Marianne’s by DC Central Kitchen on Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library’s 1st Floor. For other bites and coffee, we recommend exploring the neighborhood!