"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 2021
Augmented city, Xing Huan
Things that ignore, Sean Walker Hutton
The art of microbe maintenance: value and applications in design, Yujin Hwang
Mutable landscapes: diversity through the lens of the earth's biomass, Ilya Iskhakov
Distilling the Narragansett Bay, Parker Ives
Out of bounds, Luciana Iwamoto
The TEK-way: traditional ecological knowledge: a catalyst to building resilient communities, Smera Rose Jacob
Feral devices : an additive fabrication, Kat Jarvinen
Woven healing: reimagining the rural health center, Mahasweta Jayachandran
Wounds need air, Camilla Jerome
Transforming islands: a living memorial for the Marshall Islands, Chengwen Jiang
Reimagining the damage: an exploration on urban brownfield regeneration strategies, Jun Jiang
Living · Sharing · Connecting : rebirth of Longchang Apartments Heritage Community, Linhong Jiang
Migrating architecture: vernacular futurism, Yichu Jiang
The reenactment : "object" as performance, Yue Jiang
A hypothetical debate, Talya Kantro
Re-foresting: cohabitation of human and trees, Chengyu Ke
Filmic landscape: a performative space with multi-medium, Zhihong Ke
A house on a street: a proposal for the multi-generational house in America, Ian Johnson Kienbaum
The second home: breaking the cycle of lonely death, Woohee Kim
Play & protest, James Kloote
Breaking the mold: a journey of the brick, Sumanth Krishna
Balance the conversations, Karen Kuo
Tracking traces, Songan Kyung
CTRL SHIFT, Kit Son Lee
Community Healthcare Clinic - adaptation system to the pandemic and post pandemic periods, Nhu Le
City of archive: visualize and spatialize archive, Zaiheng Liang
Land, labor, water: an agricultural commons in the Central Valley of California, Jacob Lightman
Post-industry brownfield renewal system: precision strategy and design via the new methodology, Sirui Li
Inside out: rethinking contemporary Chinese art and global creative economy, Tiange Li
Kitsch study and Chinese kitsch market, Jiaqi Ellie Liu
996 & anti-996, Jinmi Liu
Fluid ground: imagining a floating future for Tuvalu, Yuxi Liu
House of reincarnation, Xinyu Li
Making meaning, Eric Loucks
Objects and images, Jack Lovell
Live-work autonomy system on Mars: China's collective living onto Mars, Lishunxiang Luo
Beacon Public Library: expanding radical civic care for an uncertain future, Katrina Machado
All bodies wander, Haley MacKeil
Ars Technica, Bayan Mashrequi
Inside the bubble 2.0, Sunny Yuqing Ma
An interplay: biomimetic exploration of systems in architecture, Sanjana Masurkar
Wild things: outdoor toys for nature play, John Mawhorter
Martyr (in exile), Xinyi Mei
Eco-waste: household waste material flows in a circular economy, Erqi Meng
Jettisoning the frame: strategies for designing at the threshold, Will Mianecki
Indefinite origin: decentralizing knowledge, Tong-June Moon
Reinforcing connection within collective housing: a new vision of Red Steel City, Guangyi Niu
Future as medium, Georgie Nolan
The non-traditional student enrolled full-time in art school, Sarah Kathryn O'Brien
I just can't get you out of my head : frenetic vortex, animal as image - field notes (1989-2021), Steffanie A. Padilla
Ascents and descents in the 21st Century: restoring Chand Baori, Japneet Pahwa
Affordable Green: what cause landscape gentrification and how we deal with it, Siyu Pan
The beauty of collision, Yixuan Pan
Transformers: versatile apparel for a sustainable world, Zihan Amy Peng
Beauty still lives here: narratives of radical self-love, Deshun Peoples
Nossa quadra, nossa historia: the power of collaborative and communal outdoor spaces as a tool for belonging & agency, Rebecca Maria Pepl
No winners: transgender athletes in cycling, Max Pratt
El suelo en duelo, Mariana Ramos Ortiz
In service of _____; an inclusive architectural collage practice, Blair Ramsey
Virtuality, reality, community, Siqi Rao
Phefumula Nami, Ndivhuho Rasengani
listening to the unhearable, Ollie Rosario
Dive, Aparna Sarkar
Hard work / soft work, Nicole Schonitzer
Blue loops, Rebecca Senn
Synthetic undulation: improving the marine life quality on the Indonesian island of Seleyar, Shreeyaa Shah
Terminal: through the "windows" of a Tram Car Museum, Yuyi Si
sometimes like butterflies, Edward Steffanni
Unfold the body, Fan Su
Sensory bridge, Ouqiao Sun
Knowledge from below, Meghan Surges
The ephemeral altar & the floating grave, Hannah Suzanna
Ritualizing of space in the 21st century: fostering of communal identity through celebration of Tamil culture, Mridula Swaminathan
In the muck and the mire, Orli Swergold
Zoomorphic extended body, Nicholas Tamas
Community steward of the deep bay: staging Lau Fau Shan for resiliency through collective participation, Lauren Tam
Sensory refreshment: TCM reconsidered, Ni Tang
Segments of reality: interface / space / movement, Yuan Tao
Reconstructing property, borders, and sites: nestling the built, Christina Truwit
An evolving process: patterns and objects, Shreya Tuli
Healing through architecture: role of architecture in promoting healing in cancer care settings, Vrindha Vijay
Hybrid garment, Diya Wang
Counting pebbles wasn't even a class in high school: seeing visual arts education through a process-forward lens, Em Xiangning Wang
Across the boundary: addressing segregation along transportation infrastructure, Ruochen Wang
Remember me: how we can modify the home for people with dementia, Wenjin Wang
Regional food self sufficiency: new visions for productive landscapes, Yiling Wang
Design for the past, Zexi Wang
The retrieval of memory: holding time in the Shanghai gasometers, Liman Wei
Wandering land: landscape on space station, Xin Wen
Ecotourism in vacationland: shoreline development and economic inclusion on the Southern Maine coastline, Quinn Christopher Wilcox
Like water taught by thirst, Emily Wilker
Material Encounters: Making Memory Beyond the Mind, Ariel Wills
Everyone I have every crowed with 2021-, Hannah Lutz Winkler
Elsewhere: impressions of sense & nonsense, Madeline Woods
Fostering cultural understanding: mirroring ways of living in Providence, RI, USA and Beijing, PRC, Jiarui Tina Wu
Balancing the tangible and intangible, Shiqi Wu
Uncertainty wanted: deconstructing gender gap in parenting mentality, Zimeng Xiang