Paper Monuments combines public education and collaborative design to expand our collective understanding of New Orleans.
Amber N. Wiley
Amber is a historian who specializes in architecture, urbanism, and African American cultural studies. Her research is centered on the social aspects of design — architecture as a literal and figural structure of power. She focuses on the ways local and national bodies have made the claim for the dominating narrative and collective memory of cities through design, and examines how preservation and architecture contribute to the creation and maintenance of the identity and “sense of place” of a city. She was named a 2016 Emerging Scholar by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine, and was awarded the inaugural H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship from the Society of Architectural Historians. She traveled to Mexico, Guatemala, Ghana, Ethiopia, India, and Vietnam during the 2014-2015 academic year.
Amber is a member of the National Park System Advisory Board Landmarks Committee. She has formerly served on the boards of the Vernacular Architecture Forum, Latrobe Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians, and the Yale Black Alumni Association. Amber received her Ph.D. in American Studies from George Washington University. She also holds a Master’s in Architectural History and Certificate in Historic Preservation from the University of Virginia School of Architecture, and a B.A. in Architecture from Yale University. She is a proud native of Oklahoma City.
