"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 from 2024
-ing: Heritage as a Verb, Eunji Park
Move or die, jiho park
Tennessee sure knows how to make 'em, Lorena Park
Milpa: Cultivating Community Through Grid Remediation in México, Marianna Pasaret Molinar
Conspicuous Repair: Drawing Attention to Brokenness in Public Landscapes, Ashley Pedersen
A Dispatch from the Site Office, Adrian Pelliccia
Community Engagement in Art & Design Colleges, Mah Rukh Raja
Wild Joy: An Exploration in Queer Spatial Dynamics, Kipper Thomas Reinsmith
One of One of a Kind, Dominic Rishe
Infinite Plane: Metaphysical Architecture + Digital Space, Isabella Ruggiero
Creative Connections: Building Empathy to Foster Ecoliteracy Through Art Education, Jocelyn Salim
Umbrales (Thresholds), Maureen Scally
Icons of Solitude: Peace, Quiet, and the Urban Condition, Jack Schildge
Beyond the Idle Machine: Spatio-Subjective Architecture, Andrew Schnurr
snowstorm, Caleb Shafer
Corner Revolution: Beyond “skynet”, Brightening Grey space and Building Security, Caimin Shen
Spirit of Place: examining chinese principles of place-making in a contemporary urban context, Junyi Shi
SWING! Active Play Motivation, DONG YOON SHIN
Here—There, Glikeriya Shotanova
Urban Looms, Recoloring City, Ella Son
Living Surfaces, Ryan R. Sotelo
Untitled, Lucia Steele
Space Between: Navigating Openness, Torie Stotz
Making Room, Rachel Strompf
TIMELESS TEACHINGS & UNBRIDLED POSSIBILITIES, Ruijie TAI
A Delicate Balance, Lily Taylor
THE RUNIS: HOW CAN SOCIAL REMIDATION AND ENVIRONMENTAL REMEIDATION BE LINKED THROGUH ARCHITECTURE?, Tayu Ting
Entropic Accumulation, Abby Tuckett
Variations on Noise, Clinton Van Arnam
To the Dogs or Whoever, Jacqueline Walker
Life of Things, Things of Life, Shiyue Wang
Revitalizing Public Spaces: Integrating Mental Exercise into Contemporary Landscape Architecture Design, Silin Wang
Empathetic Reverberations, Tianyue Wang
Celestella Resonance, Xuanren Wang
A New Grounding, Corey Watanabe
Echoes of Heights: Sustaining Tradition for Education and Community in the Tibetan Plateau, Junyue Wen
surface tension, Berett Wilber
Perform—Produce, Rebecca Wilkinson
What does water want?, Julia Woznicki
Fluid Futures: The Revitalization of Yangzhou Through Its Historical Waterways, Feiyang Wu
Recomposing Museums: Designing Rhythmic Experiences for Short Attention Spans in the Digital Age, Yujiang Wu
Design With Decay, Charlotte Wyman
Gender Mirror: Giving women's perspective to men through exhibition, Jiaxuan Xu
Memory and Experiential Lab, Yufan XU
Beyond Display: Crafting Emotional Journeys for Belonging and Connectivity, Jiamin Yang
LifeLink, Yuan Yuan
Architecture As A Carbon-Based Practice, Qixin Yu
Exploring the versatility of clay in double curvature surface formation, yicheng zhang
Lucid Dream: Embracing Uncertainty, Zhiyun Zhang
Outside_in, Zixuan Zhang
Small Islands Commons: Retrieving Territory, Identity and Rights in The Bahamas, Fangzhou Zhao
In Gratitude to the Stories Untold, Wenran Zhao
Bridge Between Calligraphy and Architect, Tianhao Zhong
EquiVision Habitat: The Collective Dreamworks, Shixuan Zhou
忘年交 / A Friendship That Transcends Age, Zichen Zhou
Waste Illuminates Worlds: Printed Modular Lamp Design Based On Brick and Clay Tile, Yechen Zhu
The First Gate, Ji Zou
Theses from 2023
Ghost Hotel, George Acosta
Kole, Isaiah Aladejobi
spaces of wait and their weight, eman alhashemi
moretheless, abdelghani alnahawi
Cohabitation x Adaptation, 2100: A Climate Change Epoch, Kyle Andrews
Reintroducing Hemp (rongony) in the Material Palette of Madagascar: A study on the potential of Hemp Clay components and its impact on social and ecological communities., Henintsoa Thierry Andrianambinina
Princess Chives, Yuxuan An
I, others, world - A Glass Circuit, Ariel Aravot
A Part Apart, Spenser Atlas
Norteada- En Busca De un Nuevo Norte. Cocoon Portals and the Negotiation of Space., Kimberly Ayala Najera
the people's food project, Grace Barrett
Decolonial Perspective on Fashion and Sustainability, Haisum Basharat
Psychochoreography, Nora Bayer
Fungi in Flux | Designing Regenerative Materials and Products with Mycelium, Arvind Bhallamudi
Kala in my Moholla - art in my neighborhood, Priyata Bosamia
Whale Fall·Building Fall, Jiayi Cai
Step 10, Jinhong Cai
Starting From Ecotone Reconnecting Fragmented Mission Hill, Xinyi Cai
Impact of Art Educators: Artistic Practices, Political Advocacy and Pedagogy of Frida Kahlo and Faith Ringgold, Gabriela P. Cantu
Mistranslated, Hee Young Cha
Nature as Material, Time as Tool, Chuchu Chen
Green + White = Pink, Dora Chen
Physical Documentation of Censored Incidents Liberates One from the Doubts of Existence., Winnie Cheung
Rotten and Falling, Khwanchira Chindamanee
Means and Methods: Pedagogy and Proto-Architecture, Daniel Choconta
Movement, Mechanization, and Coexistence, Yukyung Chung
The Approach: A Promise of Warmth Inside, Louis Cohen
The Border Crosser's Pocketbook: A Guide to Engaged Pedagogy in After School Arts, Britney Coppick
Arctic Resilience: Adaptive Networks of Self-Sufficiency, Jingjing Cui
FROM VAULT TO PLATFORM （Democratizing Museums through the Lens of the Metaverse））, Zhaoyang Cui
Beyond the Lines, Miranda-Max de Beer
Making Then Meaning, Ben Denzer
Abundance within Scarcity: Food Security in the Favelas of Brazil, Menglin Ding
MILITURE, Bingdong Duan
The Miacomet Movement, Charles Duce
Form Follows Feeling Follows Form, Harshal Duddalwar
Unpacked: Consumer Culture in Suburban Spaces, Jaime Dunlap
At the Bend in the Bright River, Andrew Eckhardt
Intensifying the Experience of Contemporary Art, Wanjin Feng
POSTINDUSTRIAL PLAYBOOK++, Maxwell Fertik
Flores, Rigoberto Flores
Making time: Gentle invitations for radical slowness, Lian Fumerton-Liu