Date:
Location:
CRITICAL HEALTH HUMANITIES
SPEAKER: SARA CARR, NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY
Our changing understanding of the reciprocal relationship between the environment and the body is reflected in the palimpsests of our urban landscape. Concepts of wellness, disease, and treatment have influenced urban design from the Industrial Revolution to today, and the results have ranged from successful to unintended incubations of the next generation of illnesses. As we face a rupture in the parallel histories of public health and the public realm, examining our built environment through this lens is necessary to frame today’s most urgent questions. This talk looks to the past in order to offer meditations on how the urban landscape must shift again to address the intertwined issues of our pandemic present, social justice, and climate change for a healthier future for all.
Sara Jensen Carr’s teaching and research focuses on the connections between landscape, human health, urban ecology, and design. Her current book in progress, The Topography of Wellness: Health and the American Urban Landscape, examines landscape responses to six historical urban epidemics and the implication for current and future practice. Sara holds a Master of Architecture from Tulane University, and a Master of Landscape Architecture and PhD in Environmental Planning from University of California Berkeley, where she was the co-founding editor of the ASLA Award-winning GROUND UP Journal. She is a licensed architect who has worked professionally in New Orleans and the San Francisco Bay Area. Her research and representational work has been exhibited at San Francisco Planning and Urban Research (SPUR) gallery, the National Building Museum in Washington D.C., and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. In 2017, she held a residential Mellon Fellowship in Urban Landscape Studies at Dumbarton Oaks. Prior to arriving at Northeastern, she held a joint appointment in the School of Architecture and Office of Public Health Studies at University of Hawai’i at Manoa, where she worked with several local nonprofits and agencies on evaluation and design initiatives, including the Hawai’i Department of Health, the Native Hawaiian Health Program at Queens Medical Center, and the Outrigger Duke Kahanamoku Foundation. She is also an advisory board member at Design 4 Active Sacramento, a cross-sector, award-winning team that advocates for and advises on active design initiatives.
How To Join
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If you have any questions, please contact David Jones at dsjones@harvard.edu