"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 2026
Foveate, Dahlia Aggarwal
Sentience, Sheetal Agrawal
Femmage Work, Mary Elizabeth Alford
countersense, Avrie Allen
Studio Archeology: Uncovering Pedagogical Potential in Artist Spaces, Julia I. Ambros
Stinkin' Lincoln, Carrie Anderson
Without traditional craftsmanship, Modern Design is nothing, Muhammad Asif
OPEN_______, Eitan Boiarsky
Echándole Ganas: Pláticas of Belonging + Resistance in Art + Design, Itzanya Bravo
There is No Real : The Burden Makes it Real, Matthew L. Brown
AER, Qiyi Cai
41.82379°N, 71.38497°W, Xiaotong Cai
Commodity Beyond Price: A Visible Database of Free Objects, Yifei Cai
The Maroon Cycle, Lloyd-Princeton Cangé
I Miss My Computer: Online Artistry, Web Aesthetics, and Coming-of-Age in a Digital Landscape, Catherine Capeci
Optimalism, Clara F. Cayosa
Seeking Ground, Shrishti Chatterjee
AuxiliarY DamagE, Aiyi Cheng
Frictional Intelligence, Posheng Cheng
Unleashing Material Agencies, Yahui Chen
PROVIDENCE PUZZLE:Exhibition Design as Urban Spatial Practice, Ye Chen
What a Wonderful Dream, Zhaoyue Chen
Objects With Life, Yu Ting Chiu
Hidden Systems, Samuel Choi
Fallen Leaves:The Unseen, Forgotten, Presences that Live in Us, Juhee Cho
Painting as SFX, Callie Coccia
The Image Falls Apart, Alexa N. Curran
Companionship, Certainty, Integrity, Chandler C. Curtis
Open Forms, Barbara Cutlak
Huh? Wow!, Lieyah Dagan
Social Soils: Reclaiming the Urban Pedosphere, Manal Dar
Knowledge_Scapes, Lauren F. Davis
The Wall as Commons, Raveena Deshpande
Somatic Prosthetics for Planetary Resonance, Disha Dharesh Kumar R
Returning to the Hand, Tatum Dodd
FLOATERS, Kyle Gyumin Dong
Waterway: A Steam-Based Therapeutic Device System, Mingyuan Dong
Tùn-Scene and A-Futurism: Biomythography, Opacity, and Posthuman Imagination, Minglu Du
Strata: Portraits of the Alvarado & the Southwest, Kayla R. Duncan
I BELIEVE, Rusudan Dushuashvili
Boring Objects Bureau, Eric Fan
Museum of Fragments, Shuchang Fan
Mirth, Lauren Schell Farias
Always More to Explore: Play and Resilience in Community-Based Artmaking, Charlotte T. Faubert
Framing the Slow Landscape, Beiqi Feng
Reading Exercise (You Are the Hero): Dedicated to the Providence River Under the Mall, 02.17.2026, Deborah Fischer
"Hand and Mind Lead to Life": Craft Pedagogy in Art Education for Older Adolescent Learners, Katherine Fu
Fetishismus:Facism, Sodomy, and the Exhibition, Matthew P. Gershovich
Temporary Constructions, Elliott Golden
Ambient Furniture, Andrew T. Goulet
Dead Reckoning, Jeremy A. Grail
Music as an Environment, Yuval Gur
Love Letters to Insects: Affect-based science communication, Manuela Guzmán
LACE MEMORY LAB, Xinyu Han
Between nature and architecture : A dialogue of five elements, Niexiangyi He
Another Palace for the People, Kate Holbrook
The Amplifier: Small Spaces, Loud Futures, Szewai Hong
all the hours of light, Isabel Horgan
How to Make a Jumpsuit, Xue Huang
Until the Ground Breaks, Annie Hu
In the Becoming, Lingyi Hu
Finding the Estuary, Rhea HU
Negotiating the Shoreline, Shuqi Hu
Growing Pains Inc., Abigail B. Jarvis
Useful Useless Object, Jisu Han Jung
Beyond the Tampon (Menstrual Equity & Justice Certification), Rucha Kale
Watershed Amendments: Assembling New Pervious Ground From Landscape Waste, Sophie Kaplan-Bucciarelli
Embodied River: Deliberate Unbuilding in Post-Dam Landscapes, Travis Kelley
Just Between Us (and everyone we tell...), Deborah Khodanovich
Perceptual Heterotopia: A Spatial Experience through Light, Media, and Textiles, Anne Yeoji Kim
Mediated Landscapes, Image Road Trip, Faith Kim
The Marathon without Running: Experiencing a runner's sensorial journey, Harin Kim
\n: Playground of Digital Interventions, Thea Kim
Recombobulation- Taking the Bad with the Good, Gregory T. Kmieciak
Where my memory settles, Rachel Kobb
Menstrual Muses: Art, Storytelling, and the Care-Based Communication of Menstrual Justice, Burcu Koleli
The Disappearing Shore, Marguerite Kreuzkamp
The Second Horizon, Roger Labib
Landscape Repositories: Mapping Post-Mining Narratives in Asbestos, QC Val-des-Sources, QC, Rasha Lama
DOMESTICATING DURATION, Xiaoyu Lan
CHAIR FOR WORKPLACE MORALE, Alicia Lee
Circling, Eun Yong Lee
Frameworks, Hailey Lee
Part-Time Faculty in Art and Design Higher Education: Support & Challenges, Katherine Ye Jin Lee
A Charging Station as Part of the Island's Energy Metabolism, Kaya Lee
Meadowkeepers, Molly Lefanowicz
Carve, Release, Expand: A Spatial Exploration of the Clandestine Music Spaces of Chicago, Katie Lesh
Soft Space/Strong Support, Keqian Li
Digital as Material, Ruoxi Li
Within Boundaries: Collecting and Exhibiting Chinese Contemporary Art in M+, Hong Kong, Lei April Liu
Where Forms Dream, Siran Liu
After Yellow Horse: From Passive Shelter to a Self-Sustaining Cycle, Xinyuan Liu
Not Reaching the End, Yiyun Liu
Waiting for Memory to Expire, Yuanji Liu
see small, know big, zairan liu
Fragments of the Grassland, Zihan Liu
Specific Randomness, Xinyi Li
Jewelry as a Portable Sanctuary, Yuhao Li
Edge of Shade, Zhengguang (Lancelot) Li
Weaving Grounds: Connecting canyons and empowering borderland communities, Maria D. Lopez Vazquez