Using the Academic Office as a Teaching Space

 JoAnn Wilson, an assistant professor in Utah State University’s Interior Design Program, will discuss the challenges design students face when relating the material they learn in textbooks to real-world applications in an academic setting.

Her talk “The Academic Office: A Teaching Space” will be delivered June 16 at Kiger Hour, an intellectual social program presented by USU and sponsored by the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and the Caine College of the Arts.

“The academic office is often less than a stellar example of commercial interior design,” said Wilson, who has taught and practiced interior design for more than 25 years. “Students find it difficult to relate to the nuances of textbook office design and the physical reality around them.”

She will present a process for transforming an empty space into a state-of-the-art academic office. The purpose is to show “how a partnership between industry and academics can give students a hands-on understanding of commercial design,” she said.

Wilson is a graduate of the University of Utah’s design program and architecture program at Texas Tech University. She has worked for design firms in California, Maryland and Utah before starting her own design partnership and a design showroom in Salt Lake City. Wilson returned to USU and its Interior Design program in 2008. Previously she was the director of interior design at her alma mater Texas Tech.

Learn more about interior design and Wilson at Kiger Hour Thursday, June 16, from 5:15 to 7 p.m. at Hamilton’s Steak and Seafood, 2427 N. Main St., Logan. A buffet with appetizers, desserts and soft drinks, iced tea or coffee is available. Cost is $6.95 per person (plus tax and gratuity) and billed on an individual basis. Guests can also order from the menu, and a cash bar is available.

For planning purposes, please RSVP to Natalie Archibald Smoot in the college office, 435-797-2796, or email, natalie.archibald@usu.edu.