Professor Heyda studies the spatial-social impacts of late capitalism on American cities, with a focus on contemporary urban redevelopment in majority Black St. Louis, Missouri neighborhoods. Her work interrogates mainstream planning protocols that have effects of reproducing inequality, displacement and urban erasure, despite intentions. She uses design mapping techniques to spatialize the uneven dimensions of power, incentives, citizen engagement and political decision-making, towards creative new models of design engagement. Contested sites of focus in her work include Kinloch, Ferguson and surrounding municipalities in North St. Louis County, and McRee Town in St. Louis City, among others. Currently, she is completing Ferguson Primer: A Radical Atlas of Spatial Politics (Actar).