CITIES COLLABORATIVE: 2020 IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE SERIES: NAYAN SHAH, USC, “Spatial Inequities: The ‘Chinatown’ Problem in Today’s Pandemic Times”

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has profoundly upended assumptions of human habitation, proximity and health and demands a reassessment of a century and half of public health governance in society and its manifestations both locally and trans-locally. This presentation draws attention to how historical models of public health  have aggravated racial, class and spatial disparities that make essential workers, immigrant workers and impoverished urban communities acutely vulnerable, while middle and upper class communities command relative safety and health preservation resources. By examining how how “Chinatowns” as racial ghettos were created, targeted, policed, and reformed, this presentation addresses the social and spatial challenges of the logics of “health security.”

Nayan Shah is a Professor of American Studies and Ethnicity at the University of Southern California. Shah’s research examines historical struggles over bodies, space and the exercise of state power from the mid-19th to the 21st century. Shah is the author of two award-winning books, Stranger Intimacy: Contesting Race, Sexuality and the Law in the North American West and Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown.