Architecture and Environmental Design
Ph.D.
University of Sydney, Australia
2012
Dr. Farhana Ferdous is an associate professor in the Department of Architecture at Howard University. After receiving her Ph.D. from the University of Sydney, Australia in 2012, she served as a post-doctoral fellow in healthcare architecture, lecturer, and global Urbanism Faculty Fellow in the School of Architecture & Design at the University of Kansas from 2012 to 2017. She is an educator, designer, and scholar whose teaching and research career spans the continents of Asia, Australia, and North America. She continues to make symbiotic interconnections between design, practice, and research, especially one focused on health, design, and marginalized or aging populations. Dr. Ferdous is the recipient of the prestigious ARCC New Research Award in 2022.
She has published widely on urban and environmental design and environmental psychology for the elderly. Her co-edited volumes ‘All In: All-Inclusive Engagement in Architecture’; from Routledge Publication (2021) and ‘(Re)designing the Continuum of Care for Older Adults: The Future of Long-Term Care Settings’ from Springer publications (2023) are groundbreaking critical discourse focusing on the impact of social engagement in architecture and design of care facilities on older adults respectively. Her scholarship has been supported by a number of research grants including from the American Association of University Women (AAUW) Fellowship (2013), Grantmakers in Aging (GIA) Fellowship (2013), Academy of Architecture for Health Foundation (2017), Toyota Individual Research Grant (2018), Graham Foundation Grant (2021); Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant (2021), Innovations in Pedagogy/Teaching Fellowship (2021) and National Endowment for Humanities Fellowship (2022).
Ph.D.
University of Sydney, Australia
2012
M.Arch
Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
2007
Healthcare Architecture, Memory Care and Assisted Living Facilities
Environment Behavior and Evidence-based Design
Behavior and Psychology in Built Environments with a Focus on Elderly Care
Healthy Communities and Healthy Urbanism
FUNDED RESEARCH PROJECTS/GRANTS
2022-24 National Endowment for the Humanities (Diversity Grant) ($60,000)
Title: Urbanization, Urbanicity, and Wellbeing in the City of Baltimore
2022-23 Graham Foundation Grant (PI, Research Grant) ($9,000)
Title: The (pathogenic)-CITY: A History of Urbanization, Minority Health and Racial
Disparities in American Landscape (1900s to present)
2022-24 Alzheimer’s Association Research Grant for Diversity (PI, Research Grant)
AARGD-21-852381($119,974.20)
Title: Development of a Valid Spatial Environment Assessment tooL
(SEAL) for LTCFs
2017-18 Academy of Architecture for Health Foundation (AAHF) (PI, Research Grant)
($10,000)
Title: Positive Health Outcomes by Environmental Design: The role of spatial
configuration in designing physical environment for people experiencing dementia
2017-19 Toyota Individual Research Grant (PI, Research Grant) ($10,000)
Title: Positive Health Outcomes by Environmental Design: The role of spatial
configuration in designing physical environment for people experiencing dementia
2016 Service Learning Grant by Center for Civic and Social Responsibility
In support of teaching a course (Designing Sustainable Future) focusing on
service learning aspect at the University of Kansas
2013-14 Alzheimer's Disease Center (University of Kansas as Postdoc Fellow)
Title: Neighborhood Walkability and Sedentary Behavior in Alzheimer’s Disease
2012-13 Office of Research and Graduate Studies: Strategic Initiatives Grant
(University of Kansas as Postdoc Fellow)
Title: Resilient Lifestyles for Older Adults
2009-11 Post Graduate Research Support Scheme
The University of Sydney (Principal Investigator)
Title: Evaluative Image of Urban Plazas: Urban Morphology, Aesthetic Response
and Social Use.
2022: ARCC New Researcher Award
2021: Innovations in Pedagogy/ Teaching Fellowship, History Maker Digital Archive
2021: Summer Academy Junior Faculty Writing Workshop, Howard University
2016: Global Urbanism Faculty Fellow, The University of Kansas
2013: GIA (Grant makers in Aging) Fellowship
2013: The American Association of University Women (AAUW) International Fellowship