Amber Wiley

Amber N. Wiley is an architectural an urban historian. Her research interests are centered on the social aspects of design and how it affects urban communities—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 recently received the inaugural H. Allen Brooks Travelling Fellowship from the Society of Architectural Historians and will be travelling to Mexico, Guatemala, Ghana, Ethiopia, India and Vietnam in 2014-2015.

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. Amber sits on the board of Vernacular Architecture Forum and is a member of the National Park System Advisory Board Landmarks Committee.