About

Amber R. Reed, assistant professor of international studies at Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia, is a cultural anthropologist with a focus on South Africa. Her work explores South Africa's transition to democracy, examining the political socialization of young people in the post-apartheid state.

Reed’s current research examines rural to suburban movement of Black South African families into formerly white-only suburbs around the metropolitan area of East London in the Eastern Cape Province. 

Her book Nostalgia After Apartheid: Disillusionment, Youth, and Democracy in South Africa (University of Notre Dame Press, 2020) is part of the Kellogg Institute Series on Democracy and Human Development and was selected for the 2021 Margaret Mead Award.     

Reed holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of California, Los Angeles.