"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
Security blanket, Danni Xu
A better city for her: design safer public spaces for women in the United States and China, Geruihan Xu
The relativity of value, Lai Xu
The future of Beijing urban courtyards, Zhuoqi Xu
Futuristic communication, Haotian Yang
Remembering Chinatown: a fusion of food, identity, & memory, Robert Yang
Mother river: restoring transiting producing, Rui Yang
Eco-corridor for wildlife: reclamation of wildlife habitat in Rhode Island, Xiaodong Yang
The body extended, Yi Yang
Cognitive development & art education: relationship, suitability, and future implications, Zheng Yao
Textile architecture, Zoe Yates
Control theory, Colin Yoon
A journey to the deep self, Fengkun Yu
Overflowing boundaries: competition and mutualism in urban villages, Chen Zhang
Negative carbon growth in the atmosphere: to reverse the growth of carbon in the atmosphere through urban reforestation, Hanchao Zhang
Eco-concrete: reimaging Nantucket infrastructure system, Huaiwen Zhang
Water inspired places, Jiaqi Zhang
Fossil morphology, Leah Zhang
Translated architecture, Ruiqi Zhang
Driftscape: maximize urban space uses in the context of densification, Sida Zhang
The second identity: the human-otters ha-ha - utopia for urban animals, Yuxin Zhang
Vernacular Future Architecture, Yang Zhao
Feeling at home: working with the rhythm of the day to support seniors in urban villages, Guoxi Zhou
Rural acupuncture: carefully introducing tourism within an underground village, Shangyun Zhou
Theses from 2020
Let us for once try to not be right, Merrick Adams
My millennial Asian fetishized American fantasy, Seyong Ahn
Lacunae in the urban landscape, Meriem Aiouna
Water ceremony, Adriana Alva
Frankenstein, Ruins, & Twilight, Braden Bandel
Temporal collisions, Lizzie Baur
Sol, John Beck
Vacancy never vacant, Marina Bibidakis
Exploring multimedia storytelling as a novel tool to inspire Americans to participate in wildlife conservation, Megan Brief
Artist-facilitator : making knowledge by making art, Aaron Broadbent
Madrepora, Elizabeth Burmann Littin
Change of plans: the subversive kit in the planned community, Hugo Caldwell
Strata : lessons in latency, Mukul Chakravarthi
Melting away - Ilha Formosa, Hao-Chun Chang
Repairer's recipe : volume 0, Joyce Chang
Experience the world: How the ever-present accessibility of hands-on opportunities & play enhance logistical learning, Mary E. Chavez
Recipes, Camille Chew
You are trapped., Will Chouinard
Recycle bin (trashure), Eunhyung Chung
, nevertheless,, Ji Yoon Chung
Ocean state food stories, Charlotte Clement
The knots on the underside of the carpet, Lily Colman
Revisionist histories : Parallels of monuments and absence in the present, Scott Craft
Beautiful dirt : exploring the American taboo of death through the things we leave behind, Jake Dangstorp
Re: Ornament, Aleks Dawson
Erik DeGiorgi, Erik DeGiorgi
Designed body, Jingwei Deng
Field Notes on Seeing: An Archive of Color, Mirrors, and Light, T. Deutch
Acute, Alex D'Haeseleer
Acoustic signatures: their study, representation, and agency in the experience of architectural spaces, Nathalie d'Hennezel
Behind appearance : hidden dimensions in the work of Wassily Kandinsky and Paul Klee, Ning Ding
Mimesis : human-centered digital profiling visual identity, Yangyang Ding
A very large array, Hilary duPont
This land is your land: democratizing landscape architecture, Adrienne Emmerich
In-between through : bordering bodies ; a spatial containment, Aroly Enamorado
Oh wait, is this a loop?, Carl-Gustaf Ewerbring
Slick and lumpy : heavy cream, Emma Fague
Realistic utopia : utopian architecture exhibition at Arcosanti, Xiao Fang
Counter formation, Fabian Fohrer
Binge [Fantasy reality], Elena Foraker
The kitchen table: relationships with the people, food and land that sustain us, Chelsey Frost
Mobility justice and social capital in Strawberry Mansion and Kensington, Philadelphia PA, Rebecca Fruehwald
This feels familiar, E. Winslow Funaki
To make atmosphere, Gonzalo Galetto
A material cooperation over time, Diana Marcela Gallo
Urban storytelling: rebuilding the understanding of place via immersive narrative, Xue Gao
Flowing garments: textile waste reutilization in landscape design, Fengjiao Ge
Voran Test Lab : An exploration of teaching collaborative problem solving and critical thinking through emergent gameplay, Taber Gifford
inVisible: a guide to understanding & designing for introverts, Ashesh Gohil
Glurp, glurp, glurp, Zihe Gong
Through the labyrinth, Rebeca Gonzalez Morales
How to do things with things, Emily Guez
Amor fati, Keavy Handley-Byrne
Tolerance : material conversations on life & architecture, Keyan Hansen
+ one : a new companionship, Vivien Mengjiao Han
Unbound, Changrui He
Contextualize, Jiaai He
Climate resilience for a neighborhood without privilege: East Boston, Peter Niels Heller
American MFA Vol. III Academia, Kevin Hubbard
Generative landscapes: successional and equitable plant propagation on Rhode Island's public lands, Elizabeth Hunt
Project fusion, Tianbao Hu
Mountainous city, Yixuan Hu
Community pop-up galleries : the instruction manual, Mary Iorio
New old: artmaking and storytelling with older adults, Aisha Jandosova
Living under surveillance, Fan Jia
Urban memory : Beijing City wall ruins reconstruction & exhibition, Yuan Jin
In the flesh, Courtney Sierra Johnson
Bundles and blanks and binds and bends, Steven Kaplan-Pistiner
Hain't, Jarrett Key
Here and there: a continuous narrative, Hye Young Kim
Expanded skin, Jihoo Kim
Skew-morphic dream, Yoonsu Kim
Occupying the public : humans, space & identity, Brittany Knowlton
Cross your fingers, Ayumi Kodama
I - 0, Sanghyun Koh
Territories of trash: designing the overlap of spaces of disposal and acquisition, Mary Kokorda Cavazos