Teach Global Summer Studies

Every summer, RISD Global offers a set of multi-disciplinary Global Summer Studies courses. These 3 week-long, 3 credit courses are led by RISD faculty and engage RISD students, as well as art and design students from other colleges, in the exploration of a wide spectrum of topics related to art, design and global thinking.

Global Summer Studies are a core component of the RISD's internationalization and global engagement; in the last year's courses engaged with practices and traditions in such geographies as: the Azores, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, South Africa, and South Korea, among others.

The application deadline to propose for Global Summer Studies 2024 will open on August 10, 2023 at 8:00 AM and will close on October 15, 2023 at 11:59 PM.

South Africa: Art and Science of Conservation

How to Propose a Global Summer Studies course

RISD faculty, upon approval from their Department Head and Dean, can propose a Global Summer Studies course for the following academic year, and submit a course proposal by the established course table process and deadline.

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Recent Global Summer Studies

Recent Global Summer Studies courses have led students to particular sites in the world to study: biodiversity and the impact of animal poaching on the environment, sustainable materials for the built environment, and contemporary applications of traditional heritages of making in specific cultures and locations of the world. As such, these courses support RISD’s strategic vision to contribute to the creation of just societies, a sustainable planet, and new ways of making and knowing that equip humans to live in mutually enhancing ways with each other and with the earth.

Summer 2020

Virtual, Denmark | Design Seminar + Workshop – Nathaniel Smith (Faculty, RISD Furniture)
Virtual, Italy | Form, Leather, Color & Craft – Anne Marika Verploegh Chassé (Faculty, RISD Industrial Design)

Summer 2019

Azores: Walk + Work with Wood – Laura Briggs (Faculty, RISD Architecture)
Denmark: Design Seminar + Workshop – Nathaniel Smith (Faculty, RISD Furniture)
Japan: Papermaking + Puppet Theater – Daniel Heyman (Faculty, RISD Printmaking)
RISD in ROME: Illustrating Dante's Inferno – Robert Brinkerhoff (Faculty, RISD Illustration, Dean of RISD Fine Arts)
RISD in ROME: Drinking, the Italian Way - Re-Evaluating the Vessel – Dana D’Amico (Faculty, RISD Industrial Design)
South Africa: Art and Science of Conservation – Lucy Spelman (Faculty, RISD History, Philosophy, & the Social Sciences)

Summer 2018

Denmark: Danish Design Workshop – Nathaniel Smith (Faculty, RISD Furniture)
Ireland: Illustrating Irish Myths and Legends in the Burren – Robert Brinkerhoff (Faculty, RISD Illustration, Dean of RISD Fine Arts division )
RISD in Rome: Artistic Practice in Public Space – Paul Soulellis (Faculty, RISD Graphic Design)
South Africa: Art and Science Conservation – Lucy Spelman (Faculty, RISD History, Philosophy, & the Social Sciences)
Tokyo: Bike Building – Khipra Nichols (Faculty, RISD Industrial Design)

Summer 2017

Iceland: Artistic Practice in 24-Hour Light – Paul Soulellis (Faculty, RISD Graphic Design)
Ireland: Illustrating Myths and Legends in the Burren – Robert Brinkerhoff, (Faculty, RISD Illustration)
Japan: Book Shaping and Visual Ideas – Daniel Heyman (Faculty, RISD Printmaking)
RISD in ROME: Maps and Stories – Gabriel Feld (Faculty, RISD Architecture) and Ezio Genovesi (Director, RISD in Rome)
RISD in ROME: Sensing The City – Paolo Cardini (Faculty, RISD Industrial Design) and Diane Derr (Faculty, VCUQ)
South Korea: Housing Hybrids – Rafael Luna (Faculty, RISD Interior Architecture)

Preparation & Research

Leading a Global Summer Studies is a wonderful and challenging experience, to begin to prepare and research this possibility, we encourage faculty to: