Award for Global Engagement

2021
Recipient

Abimbola Asojo

Professor of Interior Design, Associate Dean for Research, Creative Scholarship, and Engagement,
Interior Design
College of Design
Twin Cities

Dr. Abimbola Asojo’s leadership and contributions in the classroom and the community over her 24-year career in academia have been impactful both globally and locally. Dr. Asojo’s scholarly agenda focuses on cross-cultural design, architectural lighting design, African architecture, computing and design, global issues, sustainable design, and K-12 spaces. Her work is charting the course for interior design globally in Africa and the Diaspora. Her Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) partnership with colleagues at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria resulted in the development of the first Master of Interior Design program in West Africa. The inaugural class will graduate in 2021.

She has also engaged her students in more than 40 community based service-learning projects that tackle both local and global societal challenges. The projects work with immigrant groups in Minnesota to promote international and global perspectives in interior design.

Dr. Asojo’s work has been widely published in international journals and books. Her upcoming book, co-edited with Professor Falola at the University of Texas at Austin titled African Humanity: Creativity, Identity and Personhood, will be published by Carolina Academic Press this year.

Dr. Asojo is a licensed architect and holds a National Council for Interior Design Qualification (NCIDQ) certification. She is a Fellow of the Institute on the Environment (IonE), University of Minnesota. She is a member of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Interior Design Educators Council (IDEC), and the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES). She is a LEED Accredited Professional, serves on the Journal of Interior Design (JID) Review board, and is a member of the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) Building Information Management committee. Asojo was twice named a U.S. DesignIntelligence top educator in 2010 and 2017. In 2018, Asojo received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Faculty of Environmental Design and Management at Obafemi Awolowo University in Nigeria.