Since arriving as slaves, the segregation policy and racial disparities among African Americans affect the history of American urbanization, city planning, and the healthcare system. The (pathogenic)-CITY is a chronological history of racial disparities in the American landscape by focusing on how urbanization and planning movements have transformed minority health and well-being from post-industrial society to the present. The study aims to analyze the connection between the spatial form of city design and minority health in response to racial disparities and societal changes since 1840s to present. Additionally, the work explores the impact of planning movements and racism on the changing profile of infectious and manmade diseases among African Americans. This interdisciplinary research articulates the history of racial disparities, environmental epidemics, and its influence on minority health.

Farhana Ferdous is an assistant professor in the department of architecture at Howard University. She received her doctorate from the University of Sydney, Australia, and was a global urbanism fellow at the University of Kansas. She is an educator, architect, and scholar whose teaching and research career span the continents of Asia, Australia, and North America. She is known globally for her scholarly contributions to understand the nexus between human health, wellbeing, and environmental design in the built and urban settings. Her coedited volume All-Inclusive Engagement in Architecture: Toward the Future of Social Change (with Bryan Bell) is forthcoming from Routledge in 2021. She has published widely and her research has been supported by many prestigious grants and awards such as the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Fellowship, Grantmakers in Aging (GIA) Fellowship, Endeavour Postgraduate Award, Toyota Foundation Grant, Academy of Architecture Health Foundation (AAHF), KU-Alzheimer’s Disease Center Pilot Award, and KU Strategic Initiative Grant.