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Sonya Grace Türkman PhD., is an Assistant Professor of Interior Design in the College of Architecture at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln. Her interdisciplinary background spans art, design, and architectural history as she holds a PhD in Art from the University of Georgia and an MA in Interior Design from the Savannah College of Art and Design. 

Türkman’s research investigates the social and spatial dynamics of designed environments, with a particular focus on historic urban markets and the cultures of labor that sustain them. Her scholarship contributes to the expanding discourse of interior architecture as a site of cultural, ethical, material, and preservation-oriented inquiry. She has published in peer-reviewed journals and contributed chapters to edited volumes from Routledge and Peter Lang. 

Prior to her appointment at Nebraska, Türkman taught at Istanbul Technical University, where she focused on historic preservation and adaptive reuse in one of the world’s most architecturally complex cities. She continues to teach innovative courses and serves on the City of Lincoln’s Historic Preservation Commission, the board of the Nebraska Main Street Network, and the Society of Architectural Historians-Historic Interiors Group (HIG).

Areas of Interest and Research

Dr. Turkman's research focuses on how extended reality platforms re-define and extend the interior in new ways. She is currently exploring the use of virtual reality as a creativity training and assessment tool for interior design students.

In this research she is developing a framework to integrate Extended Reality platforms into the studio both as a teaching methodology and as a pedagogical practice. Dr. Turkman's work considers the changing theoretical conceptions of the interior and the influence of technology in interior design.

Publications (Selected)

Turkman, S.G. (2020). Sharing pedagogy: The Autoethnographic mapping of movement. In Changing Educational Paradigms: New Methods, Directions, and Policies. Peter Lang.

Turkman, S.G. (2019). Studio Pedagogy in the age of apps: Smartphone apps and the influence on student creativity. IDEC Exchange: A Forum for Interior Design Education, 2019 (1), pp. 18-19.

Presentations (Selected)

Educator Workshop Presenter, “Creativity in the Classroom: Enhancing Creativity through Interior Architecture” at The 6th Annual Turkish Conference on Gifted Education hosted by Istanbul University, October 2019

Presenter, “Sharing Pedagogy: The Autoethnographic Mapping of Movement" at The 5th Annual International Eurasian Educational Research Congress hosted by Akdeniz University in Antalya, Turkey. May 2018

Artist Dialogue Exhibition, “At Home in Istanbul: Art from American Women in Istanbul” at The Interdisciplinary Research Conference hosted by The University of Georgia, February 2016

Artist Dialogue Exhibition, “A Study of Culture: the Drawings of Children from Istanbul” at The Interdisciplinary Research Conference hosted by The University of Georgia, February 2014