Howard University Architecture Assistant Professor Farhana Ferdous Receives Graham Foundation Grant
- The Bangladeshi American will take an in-depth look at the history of racial disparities and environmental epidemics and how this has impacted minority health through history.
Howard University architecture assistant professor Farhana Ferdous will investigate the city of Baltimore as a case study to explore the impact of urbanicity and residential segregation from the city design and planning perspectives. The Bangladeshi American’s new project is possible with the Graham Foundation Grant she recently received.
As per a university press release, Ferdous’ project takes “an in-depth look at the history of racial disparities and environmental epidemics and how this has impacted minority health through history.” The research is titled “The (pathogenic)-CITY: A Segregated Landscape of Urbanization, Urbanicity and Wellbeing in American Landscape (the 1900s to present).”
She is an educator, designer, and scholar whose teaching and research career span Asia, Australia, and North America. She is known globally for her scholarly contributions on the topics of the design of ADRD care facilities, healthy urbanism and environmental design for the elderly, and health and wellbeing in the built and urban settings.
In the press release, Ferdous said “the (pathogenic)-CITY’ is a chronological history of racial disparities in the American landscape by focusing on how urbanization and planning movements have transformed the minority’s health and well-being from post-industrial society to the present.
In her work, Ferdous analyzes the connection between the spatial form of city design and minority health in response to racial disparities and societal changes from the 1900s to the present. She also explores the impact of planning movements and racism on the development of infectious and man-made diseases among African-Americans, as per the press release. “This research will play a role in helping her students understand the issues being studied through a new course she will implement in the Fall semester, Health and Design in Segregated Landscape,” the press release added.
Ferdous received her Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Australia in 2012 and conducted postdoctoral research in healthcare architecture at the University of Kansas (KU) until 2014. She was a lecturer and Global Urbanism Faculty Fellow in the School of Architecture & Design at KU from 2012 to 2017. She has published widely on urban and environmental design, environmental psychology, and neighborhood walkability for the aging population. Her research has been supported by many prestigious grants and awards. She has a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a Master’s in Architecture and Urbanism from Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.
Founded in 1956, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts fosters the development and exchange of diverse and challenging ideas about architecture and its role in the arts, culture and society. The Graham Foundation realizes this vision through making project-based grants to individuals and organizations and producing exhibitions, events and publications.