Amber is an Assistant Professor of American Studies and Associate Director of the Intergroup Relations Program at Skidmore College. 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.