Architecture lecturer awarded AAUW Fellowship

LAWRENCE — Farhana Ferdous, a lecturer and research fellow in the Department of Architecture, was recently awarded a one-year International Fellowship by the American Association of University Women. The $30,000 grant will support her research activities at the University of Kansas for one year.

"The fellowship will support my current work studying the special planning and design of health care facilities. In particular my research focuses on improving the ways in which the elderly perceive and use these places," Ferdous said.

Recently her research on this and other topics has appeared in the Urban Design International journal; Proceedings of the Environmental Design Research Association; the Sage Open Journal; and Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, among other places.

Ferdous has been a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Architecture since 2011. She received her doctorate in environmental behavior study and urban morphology from the University of Sydney in Sydney, Australia. She earned her master’s and bachelor’s of architecture from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

In addition to her academic career, Ferdous has been an architect in professional practice for six years. “I use this experience when teaching design studio to help students make their designs respond to the broad realities of society and social issues,” she said.  

The American Association of University Women has awarded 3,300 International Fellowships since 1917. They are awarded for full-time study or research in the United States to women who are not U.S. citizens or permanent residents. Both graduate and postgraduate studies at accredited U.S. institutions are supported.