"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 2023
Surface Tear, Alexandra Soiseth
Finding the Balance, Danyang Song
Chinese tea ceremony spirit revival, Hongli Song
Tracing as Process, Lesley Su
Nurturing Haven: A Safe Place for Single Mothers, Meng Su
How to make a hybrid workplace more human?, Ray Sun
A Day Stood Still, Yuting Sun
New Commandments, Jacob Sussman
Iteration One, Julian Suver
SENSIBLE NATURE: To “See” As We Once Did, Yuhan Su
Unveiling Pain: Wearables for Objective Pain Measurement, Hanqing Tang
Imaginatorium for children with visual impairment, Xueyun Tang
The Design of Consequences, Yuqi Tang
Vanishing Ice, Zhehao Tang
On the Edge of the "Er-Ocean" State, Mariesa Travers
Beyond the White Box: Building Alternative Art Spaces for the Black Community, Elijah Trice
Writ In Water, Jack Tufts
Cultivar, Scott Vander Veen
Translational Placemaking: The Diasporic Archive, Alia Varawalla
Unearthing Complexity: Tangible Histories of Water and Earth, Alexis Violet
Rooted in topsoil, Jiaying Wang
Rebuild Relationships Between City, Agriculture and Ecosystem in the World of the Drought, Ninghao Wang
Ritual as Design Gesture: Reimagining the Spring Festival in Downtown Providence, wenjie wang
Reconcile Liminality, Zefeng Wang
Garden Etiquette, Kai Wasikowski
Spatial Reveries, Alexander Wenstrup
A PRELIMINARY GUIDE TO BUILDING NEW FUTURES IN THE NARRAGANSETT BAY, Maximilian Werner
Public-ish, Aliah Werth
Phantom Spaces, Craytonia Williams II
A Presence of P____ and W__th, Riley Wilson
Illusion of Consumption, Architectural Rebellion: Unraveling the Maze of Consumption, Xinjie Xiang
Knot, Just Craft It, Qingxian Xu
Interactive Architecture - Intervention of Virtual Business on Commercial Space, Yihao George Xu
Destination Unknown, Dongheng Yang
One More Time, I Love You —— 我有所念人，隔在远远乡, Jingjing Yang
Moving In, Moving Up, Moving On : The adaptation and preservation of Chinese diasporas through food, Jieqi Yao
New mapping, Dowon Yoo
The Meaning of A Choice, Julie-Louise Zeitoun
Out in Thin Air, Daiqing Zhang
Watering the Soul: Reintroduction of Water to the Urban Space, Danfei Zhang
Green Paths - On the Space In-Between Buildings, Hongru Zhang
Healing the Haunted: Rituals of Mourning and Suture, Pian Zhang
Glowing Under the Bridge—A Healing Space for Wounded Souls, Ruier Zhao
City as Cemetery, Siqiao Zhao
Blowing Away, Ziyi Zhao
Living in nature & design with nature, yuya zhou
I Buried the Fireworks Under the Tree, Sihan Zhu
Moving Narration: A journey through history, Yincheng Zhu
Uncovering Emotional Contamination: Five Sites of Trauma, Abigail Zola
Finding Psychological Healing in College Settings, Dici Zou
Theses from 2022
Ports of entry, Forough Abadian
Revisionist Zinealog : a coacted countercultural device, Madaleine Ackerman
Notes in improvisation : Spatializing Black Identity through music, Esther Akintoye
Matingkad - Flamboyant, Bhen Alan
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