"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 2022
Reengineer value, Maxwell Altman
Space in sound, Gidiony Rocha Alves
Anybody home? Figural studies in architectural representation, David Auerbach
An atlas of speculating flooded futures ; water keeps rising, Victoria Barlay
That mirror again, Kyros Barton
Ready made, made ready: everyday objects for everyday emergency, Dara Benno
Notes on institutional architecture ; towards and understanding of erasure and conversation, Liam Burke
Dying differently: designing a death-oriented psychedelic treatment center, Grace Caiazza
Designing ecotones : implementing regenerative patches in urban environments for transdisciplinary and transcultural creativity-based education, Cristiane Marie Caro
Traveling troubled wallflower, Julius Cavira
Memories unboxed: connecting people with stories of our possessions, Megan Tzu-Hsien Chao
To be seen to be heard: embracing social anxiety in the workplace, Jingxuan Chen
X-Era: adaptation to the future uncertainty with sustainable Indigenous wisdom, Ruoyuan Chen
Blurred lines : Border crossing between Macau and Zhuhai, Weiwei Chen
Systemic design: Experiments to trigger pedestrian empathy in the urban system, Yu Chen
City of intelligent soil: systematic approach towards urban soil mutualism, Yuting Chen
For a moment, I was lost ; a visual reflection on the process of grief and mortality within the home, Adam Chiang-Harris
Remnants, Sarah Chriss
Creative changemaking : designing is teaching, Kaitlyn Cirielli
A thesis on the entanglement of art and design, Racquel Clarke
What the water says as it runs, Jeanette Cosentini
Community conservation & engagement through the architecture of public transportation, Liam Costello
Practice makes perfect : finding inspiration in art education, Mercedes Rose Crespo
Embedded are the embers of echoes, Sarah Jane Cribbs
Sacred pleasures : a patronage festival of the erotic and play, David Dávila
Notes to myself, Anna Dawson
Regenerative residences: shrinking stress levels in the sky, Peter de Lande Long
Attuning the viewfinder, Ian de Silva
Disoriented: navigating the nuances of communication, Ann Dinh
Caregivers as worldbuilders, Caitlin Dippo
Youkoso Tokyo : Guidebook to a new cybercity, Evelyn Ehgotz
Home: a landscape of narratives ; spaces through story telling, Tania S. Estrada
Capture, control, circulate : can we queer regulatory power in Graphic Design?, Adie Fein
More Friends than the Mountains: A Comparative Conjunctural Analysis of Kurdish Autonomy Movements in Rojava and Bakur, Dillon Foster
To mine or not to mine? Epistemological development of the Pebble Mine landscape in Lake Iliamna area as a resilient commons system, Chenfang (Vincent) Gang
A digital surreal, Michael Garel-Martorana
Moving through time, Anca Gherghiceanu
COPPER AFTERLIVES: Memory, Image, and Waste in the Postindustrial Landscape of Butte, Montana, Sierra Gideon
A wavering line, Ginger Gordon
Rising to the occasion : a resiliency strategy for Brickell, Miami, Stephanie Gottlieb
Just enough, Amelia Greteman
Food for an island : on the relationships between agriculture, architecture and land, Melinda Groenewegen
Urban vine: reimagine the scaffolding as a repair opportunity to transform the ecosystem, Shuyi Guan
Alien Encyclopedia, Zengqi Guo
Arriving in the city: reimagining the urban footholds for rural workers, Xinlei Gu
Sobremesa, Charlie Herbozo-Vidal
Wall, Jazzmynn Chang Hong
Scalability system: A tool for bioregional navigation, Lulu Hou
Towards a new immersion, Kaijie Huang
We walk, we live: reclaiming the rights of female and other gender minorities to the urban commons, Wenxi (Hillary) Huang
Darkness matters: understanding the ecological effects and human sensory perception of night lighting, Zitong (Shirley) Hui
Rememory, Jonathan Mark Jackson
Holding spaces, Zibby Jahns
Vulva gazing: power and the gendered body, Aaliya Jamal Zaidi
Transnationals; or, the modern Frankenstein, Kai Ji
Re-order the order of thing, Yingxi Sabrina Ji
The great delusion, Beth Johnston
Miles and miles and miles, Shannon Rose Jones
Openness, Qiwen Ju
Astoria houses: a resilient community, James Juscik
Adaptive reduce: forging architectural futures through degrowth, Erika Kane
Unfolding embodied experience: a process-driven immersive exhibition design model, Mooa Seongah Kang
Healing the Black Butterfly: reparation through resources, Danasha Kelly
New revelations, Ineke Lynne Knudsen
Field guide to gendered public life : balancing the preservation of the existing vibrant public life with the improvement of the female experience, Christina Koutsoukou
What do we stand for?, Lauren Koven
Disinheritance as critique: the paintings of Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, Sabo Kpade
!, Nick Larson
Retelling a landscape through the alchemy of recasting, Amanda Lee
Block Chain Home, Jonggun Lee
Immortal/ ephemeral/ versatile, Zhenhong (Brad) Lei
Time enough at last, Scott Lerner
Mason & Dixon: History and Identity in the Borderlands, Drew Leventhal
Last sunset : design to alleviate social isolation for Chinese elderly, Linghui Li
I don't quite remember it that way, Margaret Lindon
Objects in transformation, Caroline Coxe Lippincott
Treeing: what remains of a pilgrim, Sichen Liu
Anti-gentrification: reconnect Chinatown through culture practice, Xianzhongge (Allen) Liu
System as a living organism, Xinyi Liu
Aquatic assemblages: improving dragonfly habitat and water quality in an urban park, Yan Liu
Unnoticeable city corners, Yuchen Liu
Trash matters: material strategies for prolonging the life of single-use plastic, Zixin Li
Immaterial realities, Tyler Lovejoy
Infection-free landscape: adaptable urban open space design during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, Weirong Luo
Abyss without vertigo, Jack Madden
Rebuilding Collective effervescence : a "Ballroom" for post-pandemic revelry, Di Ma
Houston, TX Walkable Circuit interventions to aid Houston’s safe/accessible walk-ability, Isabel Manahl
All at sea, Yangyang Mao
Reference: a field guide for new practices, Eric Mason
A fleeting landscape: resurrecting the edges of the estuary, Vrinda Mathur
Wanderer, Yuhan Ma
Contemporary Eco Theory in Art Education: field notes and desire paths, Margaret K. McCullough
With water, KT McLeod
World Settings, Elizabeth Meiklejohn
Material Illumination, Lauren Mikaela Glenn
Offshore speculation: generative ethics for submerged lands, Leigh Miller