Abstract

With globalization, the need to promote cross-cultural awareness for design students continues to grow. It has become clear that merely offering one “cultural” course does not contribute to an adequate understanding of culture within our global society. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the process of infusing cross cultural aspects into selected courses of the design curriculum in the Department of Design and Human Environment at Oregon State University. Prior to the infusion the department had one “cultural” course. Four additional courses were identified as candidates for cultural infusion: two lower division and one upper division studio courses and one upper division lecture course. The cultural infusion objective for each class varied from providing a basic understanding of the term culture to teaching about selected cultures in order that students could use this new cultural information for inspiration in the design of a product. The faculty teaching the classes designed lectures, student activities, assignments, and evaluation processes to test the success of the cultural infusion. Future plans include creating activities that will promote a deeper understanding of culture.