Sara Jensen Carr

Oct. 5, 2020

sketch of a body overlaid by a map

This illustration is from Sara Jensen Carr’s forthcoming book, The Topography of Wellness: How Health and Disease Shaped the American Urban Landscape (University of Virginia Press, 2021).

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All lectures start at 4 p.m. Central Time and will be presented virtually. To register for this lecture and the entire lecture series, complete this registration form on Zoom. You will be sent a confirmation email upon registration.

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Sara Jensen Carr is an assistant professor of architecture, urbanism and landscape, and the program director of the Master of Design in Sustainable Urban Environments, both at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. She is also the author of a timely forthcoming book, The Topography of Wellness: How Health and Disease Shaped the American Urban Landscape, which will be published by the University of Virginia Press in 2021.

Carr will present a virtual lecture at 4 p.m. Monday, Oct. 5, as part of the fall lecture series in the Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design. 

The Fay Jones School’s fall lecture series is presented in collaboration with Places Journal, an internationally respected online journal of architecture, landscape architecture and urbanism, and the University of Arkansas Office for Diversity and Inclusion. The series is also made possible in part by a gift from Ken and Liz Allen of Fayetteville, part of an overall set of commitments the Allens have made to the school’s programs and initiatives in diversity, equity and inclusion.

In her lecture, “Embodied Environments,” Carr will discuss how our changing understanding of the reciprocal relationship between the environment and the body is reflected in the writings 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.

Carr, a licensed architect, received an M.Arch. from Tulane University, and an M.L.A. and Ph.D. in Environmental Planning from the University of California, Berkeley.

Her work and research on the connections between urban landscape, human health and social equity have been funded by the Mellon Foundation, San Francisco Planning and Urban Research, and the National Science Foundation.

In addition, she has been published in outlets such as Preventive Medicine and LA+ Journal, and has been interviewed by The New York Times, CNN and Foreign Policy, among others, for her expertise on epidemics and urban design.

The school is pursuing continuing education credits for this lecture through the American Institute of Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects.

This virtual lecture is open to the public. To register for this lecture and the entire lecture series, complete this registration form in Zoom. You will be sent a confirmation email upon registration.