DCHDC Looks at DC Heritage: Monument Tours and Mapping Segregation

We are looking forward to presenting two interesting talks looking at DC heritage from the National Mall to the city's neighborhoods...

Our first speaker, Lauren Rever, is a Gerda Henkel Digital History Fellow at the German Historical Institute in Washington. She received her Ph.D. in American Studies in 2024 from the University of Heidelberg. Her current research project is a spatial history of domestic school trips to Washington, DC. Alongside traditional historical research, Lauren uses itineraries to investigate the authoritative relationships between institutions, visitors, and space. The project is interested in the shifting possibilities of meaning-making as Washington, DC, continues to develop as a hub of heritage tourism.

The second talk will feature historian and writer Mara Cherkasky, the co-founder of both the historical research firm Prologue DC and the digital public history project Mapping Segregation in Washington DC, which documents the use of racially restrictive housing covenants throughout the city during the segregation era. She will describe the status of the nearly 11-year-old project and the current research effort, recently launched, to complete the map. This effort, which employs the crowd-sourcing platform Zooniverse, is being conducted in partnership with the University of Minnesota's "Mapping Prejudice" project and is funded in part by the DC Office of Planning. Mara holds a B.A. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an M.A. in American Studies from George Washington University.

Our format is as follows...

6:00—Arrivals and socializing, with a break partway through for introductions.

6:30—Lightning talks by our two contributors, followed by a Q&A period.

7:00—Announcements, then adjourn the meeting for further discussion and socializing.

Come join us!