"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 series presents all collected student Masters Theses submitted and approved as graduation requirements from each of the seventeen departments offering a graduate degree: Architecture, Ceramics, Digital + Media, Furniture Design, Glass, Graphic Design, Illustration, 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
Function Follows Material, Pablo Ejarque González
(Matter)ial Revolution, Aleza Epstein
Designed Impermanence, An Alchemical Inquiry, Dani Epstein
Sweet Relief, Aaron Feltman
Call and Response : Experiments in Storytelling, Deanne Fernandes
Soft Procedures, Alec Figuracion
Building the Body, Jasmine Flowers
Beach Autonomous Zone, Carl Garvey
Industrial Tenderness, Elbert Girón
While We Were at Dinner, Anna Glass
So Far So Good, Cooper Goldman
House Calls, Gregory Goldstone
Thickness of Place: Urban Stratigraphy and Rammed Earth Construction in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Alexandra Goodenough
Culinary community: Collaborative Relationship Building through Improvisational Fine Dining, Victoria Goodisman
Textile Tectonics: Shaping Space Through Soft Studies, Lela Gunderson
Witnessing Timelessness: Revitalizing Heritage Tourism in the Ruins of Saudi Arabia, Reem Habis
Embodied Abstractions: Identity and Representation in the Digital Era, Srikar Hari
Remade Radical: Design Artifacts of a Third World Future, Yasmine Hassan
Repair Rolodex: Exchanges, Changes, and Patchwork Parables, Ethan Howard
Hong Kong’s Architectural Resistance: Practice Through Research, Jingjing Huang
Bilateral Vertical Urbanization, Yifan Huang
Furnicreature, Yijing Huang
Lost Stories, Yuxuan Huang
“Modern Nomads”: Unfolding Domesticity, Yifan Hu
Unruly and Unresolved: A Shared, Precarious Survival, Sara Inacio
Mixed Race Futurity Through Contemporary Archetypes: Mutants, Cyborgs and Dhampirs, Kobe Jackson
Re-touch, Yuxin Jin
An Abundance of Caution, Gonçalo Preto Jorge
Endless Form, Kaela Kennedy
Ornamental Archives of The Recursive Loop, prithi khalique
Stand by, I'm getting ready., Mina Kim
Going to the Sea, LINGYI KONG
Growing Together: Cultivating the Social-Emotional Effects of Art Education through Trauma-Informed Pedagogy, kaitlyn lawrence
Graphic Warmline, Soo Min Lee
Migrating with the Salt Marsh, Yiming Lei
Things I've Learned From Doing Cosplay: An Investigation On Incorporating “Atypical” Creative Practices Into Art Education, Yvonne Liang
Mind Follows Matter, Fiona Libby
Snapbot - The Enhanced Physical Play, Morong Li
City Sonatas, Duoduo Lin
Curb Appeal, Eric Liu
Navigating Transience, nina liu
Dreampool, Xia Li
From One Nature to Another, Sarah Mann
Absence Leaves a Mark: Illustrating Filipino Migrant Stories, Nina Martinez
Atelier Interloper, Isabel Jane Marvel
Entre Manos Y Barro: Innovando Con Tradición, Jose Mata
From Here to the Ground, Courtney McCracken
Patchwork: 76km between Juárez and El Paso, Naheyla Medina
America, Dreaming., Sarah Meftah
Moving Studio, Emilia Miekisz
The Dollhouse, Kristina Miesel
Homeward Bound: moving homes, moving home, Ella Nadeau
technocene, Vir Joseph Naidu
Settling Dust, Unsettling Ground, Olivia Newroz
-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
Design(ing) Disruptions: Towards Intimacies between Feminist Situated Knowledge, Gossip and Design, Senjuti Sangia
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