The University of Oklahoma College of Architecture is proud to announce that Model Schools in the Model City, authored by Director of the Institute for Quality Communities, Amber N. Wiley, Ph.D., has been named one of ten finalists for the 2026 ASALH Book Prize for Best New Book in African American History and Culture.
Published by the University of Pittsburgh Press, Wiley's book has been recognized by the Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH) for its outstanding contribution to the field. The prize, established in 2021, is an annual prize to recognize an outstanding book in the field of African American history and culture.
“This acknowledgment is particularly significant, coming from the organization that Carter G. Woodson co-founded for the proliferation of research on Black history,” said Wiley. “The nomination is a testament to the important role that the history of Black Americans can play in telling complex stories about the built environment.”
Model Schools in the Model City
Model Schools in the Model City chronicles how Black Washingtonians used public education as a means of racial uplift in the face of entrenched white resistance. The book examines how school buildings themselves became physical realizations of Black liberation, agency, and citizenship. Wiley recounts the story of Black Washingtonians' educational ambitions and their fight to maintain access to quality education in the nation's capital, revealing how these buildings stood as tests of whether their citizenship would be perpetually guaranteed.
The ASALH Book Prize committee evaluates submissions across disciplinary and interdisciplinary boundaries, selecting projects that are beautifully written, engage with new or underutilized archives, and use particular historical experiences to illuminate universal aspects of the human experience.
The winner of the 2026 ASALH Book Prize will be announced on February 17, 2026, during the ASALH Black History Month Festival.
A project designed by Gibbs College of Architecture faculty member Austin Lightle has been selected for BuildFest 2026, a national art and architecture festival held at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts in New York, on the historic grounds of the 1969 Woodstock Music Festival.
Two Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture alumni are helping shape recommendations that could influence affordable housing design and construction across Oklahoma.
The University of Oklahoma Libraries recently welcomed Carl Siegel as an Architecture Librarian and Archivist and Assistant Professor. In his role, Siegel supports students, faculty and staff across the Gibbs College of Architecture while also serving as archivist for the American School of Architecture Archives.
