Using this Platform

Oral histories are archived, so they may continue to be useful outside of the time, place, and community in which they are recorded, with particular attention to their use in connecting the knowledge gained in the past and present with its potential to shape future thought and action. Through this project’s radical cartography, we intend to cultivate awareness of and engagement with this rich history of popular struggle among those not already involved in housing movements, those peripherally involved, or those participating in movements unfolding in other cities. We seek to develop not only a repository of stories and information about housing and social justice but to help connect the vast geography of tenants, unhoused people, working-class homeowners, scholars, activists, collectives, and neighborhoods by sharing the knowledge of the struggle for housing in New York City through oral history.

Every oral history relies on the narrator’s memories, views, and opinions. Interviewers strive to create a space for an intimate, candid, and expansive conversation about the narrator’s life. Because of oral history's personal and often political nature, listeners may find some viewpoints or language of the recorded participants at odds with their own. In keeping with its mission of preservation and unfettered access whenever possible, we present these views as recorded. Beyond this commitment to open access, we also wish to publish these narratives exactly as they appear in the recording. We value the information shared as crucial knowledge supporting the struggle toward housing justice. Importantly, narrators also maintain the right to listen to and review their recording after it is complete and to make any comments, edits, or suggestions they see fit. The agency of the narrator as the author of their own account is central to the practice of oral history.

To record, archive, preserve, and share this oral history project in a way that respects our narrators' dignity, privacy, and agency, we abide by the General Principles & Best Practices for Oral History as set forth by the Oral History Association. These guidelines will be implemented in collectivity with the community of narrators we seek to build through this project, ensuring that this material's future use is conducted following a rigorous and transparent ethical framework.

The audio recording is the primary source for each interview. Part of preserving oral history also includes the transcription, when possible, of each interview. Where provided, transcripts serve as a guide to the interview. Transcripts are nearly verbatim copies of the recorded interview and may contain the natural false starts, verbal stumbles, misspeaks, and repetitions common in conversation. We include these natural speech patterns because it connects readers back to the recorded oral history and the audible voice of the narrator. Some people may find these verbal patterns helpful in their own analyses. Unless these verbal patterns are relevant when quoting, all those using this material are encouraged to correct the grammar and make other modifications to maintain the flavor of the narrator’s speech while editing the material for the print standards.

Proper credit to and citation of the narrator is an essential component of oral histories, whether they are used by researchers, journalists, or community members alike. People using oral histories should include the citations located at the end of each interview. Consent to any form of participation by a narrator in an oral history must always be freely and knowingly given. From the outset, the narrator and interviewer agree on how the narrator should be credited when the oral history is archived. Narrators have the right to use a pseudonym in the recording, recordkeeping, preservation, and citation of oral history materials.

The interviews are made available for research, educational, and organizing purposes only. If you are interested in using an interview in any other way, please contact the contact person of that speific oral history project directly.

Oral history interviews produced in the US are subject to US copyright law, which protects fair use of the interview in reproduction, distribution, display, public performance, and the creation of derivative works. Before an interview is recorded, duplicated, transcribed, indexed, made public as an audio file or transcript, quoted in a publication or broadcast, or deposited in an archive, the narrator must transfer copyright ownership to the individual or organization sponsoring the project. Please look at the copyright policy stated in each oral history project.

Narrators have the right to know how their interviews will be used. Sponsoring organizations or individual interviewers will benefit from thinking broadly when explaining future use, as technological developments constantly create new avenues for publishing and distributing oral histories. If for some reason narrators want to restrict the use of their interviews, they have the right to state those restrictions, and the depository is obligated to protect the restrictions to every extent possible.

If you have questions about the use of this site, please don't hesitate to contact us: housingjustice@newschool.edu