Profile
Lynn Lewis is an oral historian, educator, community organizer and consultant. As an educator she encourages students to critically analyze the root causes of social issues and to deepen their inquiry beyond traditional sources with enthusiastic rigor. She has been an adjunct professor at The New School since 2020, teaching the Advanced Seminar in Urban and Public Policy and Homelessness and Public Policy course in the Milano School and the Self-Directed Learning course in BPATS. As a former Executive Director, she consults with non-profit organizations in the areas of fundraising, executive coaching, and community organizing.
As an organizer and oral historian, her work is defined by supporting the analysis and leadership of folks historically and currently marginalized by systems of oppression to enact systemic change. She founded the Picture the Homeless Oral History Project with long time homeless leaders of the organization to document their work, exploring what that history means to the homeless leaders who shaped it. While developing a participatory oral history research methodology, she has presented on the process and outcomes of her approach to oral history at a range of academic venues including the New School, Princeton, Columbia U and Union Theological Seminary.
Previously, Lynn served as the Executive Director of Picture the Homeless for seventeen years. She has served on boards seeking to address solutions to homelessness, including as a founding board member of the East Harlem/El Barrio Community Land Trust, a founding steering committee member of the New York City Community Land Initiative, and Communities united for Police Reform, and previously served as a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless. She has appeared on many panels regarding the root causes of homelessness and public policy solutions and the importance of homeless leadership in solving the housing crisis.
Degrees Held
M.A. Oral History, Columbia University
B.A. Cultural Studies, Concentration in Philosophy, State University of New York
Professional Affiliation
Member, Oral History Association
Recent Publications
Her forthcoming book, Women Who Change the World: Stories from the Fight for Social Justice, (City Lights, 2023) is a collection of oral history interviews with women organizers in the United States.
Her recent publications include:
"Love and Collective Resistance: Lessons from the Picture the Homeless Oral History Project", Histoire sociale/Social History, 2020;
"On Redistributing Vacant Housing", with Jenny Akchin, in Jewish Currents, 2020;
"The Picture the Homeless Oral History Project, in Radical Housing Manifesto: Imagining De-Gentrified Futures", 2020;
"Don’t Talk About Us, Talk With Us!" with Lori McNeil, in Street Practice Changing the Lens on Poverty and Public Assistance, 2012 and has co-authored several ground breaking participatory action research projects including Banking on Vacancy: Homelessness and Real Estate Speculation. 2012.
Research Interests
Oral History, Community Organizing, Public Policy, Urban Policy, Community Development, Housing Policy, Homelessness, Popular Education, Grassroots Leadership, Social Change, Social Movements, Inequality, Race
Awards And Honors
2022/2023 Oral History Association/National Endowment for the Humanities Fellow
2019: Runner Up, the Joseph H. Brodsky Oral History Award
2018: Judge Jack B. Weinstein Fellowship, Columbia University
2018: Davis Putter Scholarship for Activist Students
2017: New Voices Fellowship, Oral History Master’s Program, Columbia University
2017: Oral History Merit Scholarship, Oral History Master’s Program, Columbia University
2016: Housing Activist Award presented by Banana Kelly