Efadul Huq’s research analyzes relationships between socioecological change and regional development that shape livelihoods and ecosystems across urban and rural regions in the context of global displacements and climate change. Huq’s current research, harnessing the flexibility of mixed methods ranging from spatial analysis to qualitative and quantitative approaches, examines the relationships between wetland habitations and conversions under a globally connected urban climate governance in Bangladesh. His approach presents a novel intervention into community resilience and environmental justice through recognizing and elevating people’s collective planning practices in the context of environmental planning in climate-impacted cities. The research integrates food, housing and livelihood issues, and identifies contextually sensitive, nature-based pathways for people-centered urbanism.

Huq’s research and teaching span areas of environmental justice, international community development, urban sustainability and political ecology with a geographic focus on South Asia and the United States. His transnationally engaged research and teaching are woven into his collaborative work with community organizations, advocacy groups, citizen science initiatives, professional planning organizations and diverse publics. Bridging conversations on home-making and environment, Huq’s collaborative research with community-based advocacy organizations informs the planning for wetlands, rivers and informal settlements in Bangladesh. Huq also co-founded a community-based archive called Queer Archives of the Bengal Delta, which preserves queer social and political memories and artifacts relevant to the Bengal Delta and produces a situated analysis of global gender and sexual politics.

Selected Publications

Huq, E., & Shafique, T. (2023). "People move, policies don’t: discursive partition against climate-impacted dwellers in urbanizing Bangladesh." Environment and Urbanization, 35(1), 91-100.

Huq, E. (2022). Beyond a liberal reading of insurgent in transformative planning practices. Planning Theory, 21(2), 219-223.

Ashtari, A., Huq, E., & Miraftab, F. (2022). The Joy of Many Stories: Zine-making and Story-mapping in Planning Pedagogy. Planning Practice & Research. 

Huq, E. “Seeing the Insurgent in Transformative Planning Practices.” Planning Theory 19, no. 4 (2020): 371-391.

Huq, E., & Miraftab, F. “‘We are All Refugees’: Camps and Informal Settlements as Converging Spaces of Global Displacements.” Planning Theory & Practice 21, no. 3 (2020): 351-370.

Huq, E., & Harwood, S. A. “Making Homes Unhomely: The Politics of Displacement in a Pre-Gentrifying Neighborhood in Chicago.” City & Community 18, no. 2 (2019): 710-731.