Contributions
Design History Dossier is an annual journal of undergraduate design history research, publishing mentored student scholarship on design's overlooked, forgotten, and ignored histories, along with teaching tools and resources for design educators. We welcome submissions from students and instructors that broaden the understanding of graphic design's histories and challenge the Eurocentric focus of the canon.
Send submissions directly to Marcy Wacker at wacker@csus.edu.
General Information
Deadline. DHD publishes one volume each fall. Submissions for that year's volume are due February 15.
Review. All submissions receive editorial review. Authors are notified of decisions within 6–8 weeks of the deadline. Work selected for publication is developed with the editor through a mentored revision process — revision is a normal and expected part of publication in DHD.
Rights. Authors retain the copyright of their work, including images, and grant Design History Dossier first publication rights.
Format. Submit as a PDF or Word document to wacker@csus.edu with "DHD Submission" in the subject line.
Student Submissions
We actively seek work from students investigating overlooked, forgotten, or underrepresented histories in graphic design — original scholarship, archival research, or creative projects that tell design history in new ways.
Scholarly work: research essays, artifact analyses, case studies, and archive-based investigations. 1,500–3,000 words.
Creative work: posters and visual essays, zines and publications, and archive-based creative projects, accompanied by a written reflection of 500–1,000 words.
We welcome proposals for formats not listed here.
Images: include relevant images, properly credited, with permissions secured.
Citations: Chicago Manual of Style.
Author information: name, institution, year of study, and a brief bio (100 words max).
Instructor Submissions
Instructors may contribute in two categories:
Teaching activities. Innovative methods or assignments that engage students with diverse perspectives in design history. Describe the activity, its objectives, expected learning outcomes, and assessment approach; include worksheets, prompts, or resources. 1,000–2,000 words.
Completed student work. Nominate exemplary student work produced in your course for development toward publication. Include the original assignment prompt, the completed work, your brief context for its significance (500–1,000 words), high-quality images where applicable, and the student author's written permission. Selected student authors work directly with the editor through the mentored revision process, and the work is published under the student's byline with the course and institution credited.