The (pathogenic)-CITY: A Segregated Landscape of Urbanization, Urbanicity, and Wellbeing in the city of Baltimore (1900s to present)

FAIN: HB-282414-22

Farhana Ferdous
Howard University (Washington, DC 20059-0001)

Research leading to the revision of an undergraduate course and a peer-reviewed article on minority health and urban design in Baltimore since 1900.

My project “The (pathogenic)-CITY” is intended as a significant step towards rectifying a major gap in education about the chronological history of racial disparities by focusing on how urbanization, urbanicity, and residential segregation have transformed minority health and well-being in Baltimore since the early 1900s. My proposed course will be a substantial effort to change viewpoints and contribute to the development of new methodological and theoretical notions for a broader interdisciplinary discourse by discussing the role of urban designers, theorists, and town planners. I will study the historiography of urbanization, racial segregation, and its consequence on health disparities in Baltimore, which is a “living archive” and witness its changing urban landscape. This project will expand knowledge by filling the gaps in the multi-discipline arena that is timely and urgent for broader humanities disciplines and HBCU institutions.