"The first graduate program at RISD was established in 1957 with the MS in Art Education with the first MFA programs starting in 1961. We now have 16 graduate programs with 2 more being added in 2018.The core of any graduate program is concentrated and advanced study in an academic or professional field. Compared with undergraduate studies, graduate education is focused on producing original contributions to a field, based on research and advance practice. Graduate programs also provide the opportunity for more applied experience via internships, teaching or research. This is essential for RISD’s commitment to furthering the importance of art and design in the world and in producing distinguished professional and academic leaders." -Pradeep Sharma, RISD Provost 2014-2017
This collection presents student Masters Theses submitted and approved as graduation requirements from each of the 16 departments offering a graduate degree: Architecture, Ceramics, Digital + Media, Furniture Design, Glass, Graphic Design, Industrial Design, Interior Architecture, Jewelry + Metalsmithing, Landscape Architecture, Painting, Photography, Printmaking, Sculpture, Teaching + Learning in Art and Design, and Textiles. Postgraduate writing and research is also included.
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Theses/Dissertations from 2018
This is public work, Nick Adam
Domestic disorientation, Marisa Adesman
Evoking the divine : from secular to sacred and back again, Dragos Tiberiu Alexandru
Environmental diversity for student residence life, Jiaying Bai
Life after dark, Austin Bamford
Architecture as water-human mediator, Hui Bao
Autonomous vehicle futures : designing experiences that enable trust and adoption, Jeremy Bass
Creating connection in a digital society, Mariah Bennett
Haptic wonder : the sensation of exquisite craft, Anjuli Berstein
Haunt : casual surrealism, Cara Buzzell
Me too park : inform, connect, heal, Xiao Chen
Placefulness, Ellen Christensen
Revealing context & complexity in urban historic sites, Simin Chu
Foodways for earthlings : recipes and tools for eating in extreme environments, Maggie Coblentz
Amending the idle : an analysis of urban idle spaces + third places, Paige Davidson
Curious things, Allison Davis
Ouroboros, Christopher Dove Drury
Idiosyncratic uniform, Erica Efstratoudakis
Anachropomorphism!, Carson Evans
The evolution of ornament, Charlotte Ngaio Fairless
Living with impoundment, Chuxiong Feng
To see again, Ada Goldfeld
Lingua Franca, Tatiana Gomez Gaggero
Reveal the aura : RISD contemplative atrium, Shuyi Guo
Wild power, Iris Han
Moments of rotary motion : temporary use in vacant industrial heritage architecture, Xuecheng He
We can HOST! : preparing Miami's neighborhoods for an amphibious future, Dongning Huang
Summer peaches and salt-tinged fog, Carolina Jiménez
Really clean no problems at all, Christina Johnston
Sky well, Molly Kaderka
Letsqube, Biniam Assegid Kebede
Tightrope walking on the red lines, Arghavan Khosravi
The bird's eye view, Ipek Kosova
Preventing lonely death, Hyun Kyu Lee and Menghan Zhou
Floating Miami, Jiongye Li
Reviving floodplain in Miami, Shangyuan Li
Journey through the wasteland, Songlin Li
BioVice: a survival tool company, Chubai Liu
Field guide : collected studies of a symbiont, Jennifer Livermore
Tiny Diasporas, Angela Lorenzo
For a better normal : fostering the informal sector in post-hurricane Puerto Rico, as a pathway for economic stabilization, Jonathan W. Melendez Davidson
Capes make the man, Khalid Mezaina
Left hand stories, Saif Mhaisen
Rising above disruption, Paola Alexandra Mondino
Providence productivity framework : ideas for a network of sites rethinking productivity in Providence, Patricia Noto
Reading rooms, Jinhwa Oh
Very-Asian variation, Nicholas Oh
Space, Junk, Brandon Olsen
Hyperlink : connecting space, time, language, and technology, Marie Otsuka
Pienso en ti, Gina Gwen Palacios
From armor to augmentation : reclaiming my everyday body, Molly Palecek
Wastescape : stitching the process of natural decomposition back into the public realm, Yu Pei
Bound by // to // in earth, Lila Pickus
Harmless Studio, David Thomas Pittman
A natural circus, Cecilia Plasencia
Constellations, Maria Rull Bescós
In a distant land, Ohad Sarfaty
Dispatches from planet nowhere, Aaron Field Simmons
Radically normal : the menstruation issue, Kathryn Smiley
Talking to computers, Jen Spatz
The dream alchemy, Yue Tan
Purpose after tragedy, Elena Tepavac
Circle, loops, straps, tracks, towels, Laura Thatcher
Squishy Play, Lauren Traugott-Campbell
A place for plastics : bioplastics, bacteria and our thoughtless acts, Megan Valanidas
Cosmic whatever, cement gardens, luminous shade, Winifred Vaughan
Monument for feeling : Notes from the Archivist, Melissa Weiss
Home · land : Olmsted's legacy and gentrification in Boston, MA, Jessica Wilson
Memory.zip, Yu-Hsing Wu
Water voyage from Quabbin to Boston, Ling Xia
Future street, Wushuang Xing
Living with mega-cavity, Ankang Xu
Understanding dwelling beyond the terrestrial, Sungkyu Yang
City in / above water, Jin Yan
The Arctic Commons, A. Gavin Zeitz
Guide the flood : Miami vulnerable neighborhoods flood adaptation design, Zhe Zhao
The future of agriculture in Miami, Siyu Zheng
Architecture as an adapter : a revolution in high-rise corporate architecture, Nan Zou
Theses/Dissertations from 2017
Tendrescopic endeavors and other dynamics, Jared Akerstrom
The past is today, Afra Al Dhaheri
Otra vez : hierarchy as designer, Jordyn Alvidrez
Creating access and equity in arts education : strategic partnerships for systemic change, Colleen C. Andrews
Thesis, Robert Joseph Anspach
The creative process : gathering for meaning, Charity Appell McNabb
Communicatronics, Adi Azulay
Proximity, interaction, and evolution : taking a deeper look at the systems around us, Rachel Back
Let's get hairy : women, body hair and stigma in arts education, Chaitra Bangalore
Fluid solid : can we converse with granite?, Patrick T. Beals
I was there : irreversible view, Asma Belhamar
Anchored in place : locational identity + new genre public art, Stephanie Benenson
Na'aseh : ritual in practice, Anna Henrick Karpatkin Benjamin
Dermis, Julia Betts
Unfolding : architecture as dwelling in a folded space-time continuum, Feiyi Bie
Double takes : secular magic & empathic vision, Lake Buckley
Balance speaker : efficient work and break, Jin Cao
openness, Yu Cao
Talistones : a handful of help for homecoming soldiers, Atulya Changanty
My fish hat kingdom, Mei Fung Elizabeth Chan