This April, architectural historian and preservationist Dr. Amber N. Wiley will release her book, Model Schools in the Model City, published by the University of Pittsburgh Press. Dr. Wiley is an associate professor of Planning, Landscape Architecture and Design and the Wick Cary Director of the Institute for Quality Communities in the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture at the University of Oklahoma.
Literati Press Creative Writing Center (3022 Paseo, OKC) is hosting an author talk and book release event on April 13, 2025, from 1:00 – 3:00 p.m. The talk will begin at 1:15 p.m.
Please join us in congratulating Dr. Wiley and read on for more information.
“Access to educational resources has been a tool of liberation for Black Americans from the antebellum period to the present. With this book, Amber N. Wiley emphasizes the value of education as a means for social equality—Black Americans wanted the American Dream to apply to them, and equal opportunity for quality education was at the forefront of making that dream a reality. 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 and repeated assertions of white supremacy. For Black Washingtonians, it was the school building—a permanent structure, made of sturdy material—that was the physical realization of Black liberation, agency, and the right to exist as citizens of the United States.
Furthermore, it was the school building that stood as the litmus test to whether Black Washingtonians’ citizenship was perpetually guaranteed; thus, they fought with all the tools at their disposal to maintain access to quality education in the nation’s capital. In this book, Wiley recounts the untold story of Black Washingtonians’ educational ambitions, especially as they were manifested in the schools themselves.”
“Original, impressively researched, and ambitious, Model Schools in the Model City is an important book, one that challenges shibboleths, particularly in the history of urban renewal. It will appeal to readers who are eager to learn more about Washington, Black history, and the history of architecture, education, planning, and housing.”
—Marta Gutman, City College of New York
“In Amber N. Wiley’s capable hands, the school buildings of Washington, DC, past and present, classical and brutalist, become metaphor and monument to African Americans’ quest for full citizenship rights (or a lack thereof). In beautiful prose and a profusion of images, she illuminates the connection between the built environment and the sociopolitical relations that gave rise to it. This is how architectural history should be done.”
—George Derek Musgrove, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
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.
This semester, students in the LA 5535 Studio: Ecological Planning and Design, led by Prof. Afsana Sharmin, took on an ambitious hypothetical project to redesign key parts of the OU campus. Their mission: to tackle the critical real-world challenge of stormwater management through innovative green design.
Petya Stefanoff, Chair of the Educational Committee with the American Planning Association, Oklahoma Chapter (APA-OK) and Gibbs College PhD candidate, has developed a new training program for local government officials. The program, focused on land use, zoning principles, and land development, recently certified its first graduates with Certified Citizen Planner status.
