General oversight of all academic areas
Daniel Cavicchi | Provost
Now serving as interim provost, Daniel Cavicchi specializes in the role of the arts in the everyday lives of Americans since the early 19th century. He has taught at RISD since 1996, served as department head in History, Philosophy and the Social Science, dean of Liberal Arts and, prior to assuming the role of interim provost, as RISD's first Associate Provost for Research | Global | Practice.
Deans + provosts
Scheri Fultineer | ASSOCIATE PROVOST FOR RESEARCH | GLOBAL | PRACTICE + DEAN OF ARCHITECTURE + DESIGN
An active design practitioner, Scheri Fultineer brings to her work and teaching knowledge of landscape planning and design at diverse scales, years of research into how cultural practices influence landscape, and a lively interest in the contemporary challenge of incorporating sustainability into cultural and design practices.
Charlie Cannon | Assistant Dean of Architecture + Design
Most recently serving as department head of Industrial Design, Charlie Cannon began teaching at RISD in 1997 and became part of the Industrial Design department's full-time faculty in 2009. With additional teaching experience in the Architecture and Landscape Architecture departments, he has been nominated for RISD’s Frazier Teaching Award three times. Cannon is also a co-principal investigator for Rhode Island’s National Science Foundation Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), a $20 million investigation of the impact of climate change on marine life.
Robert Brinkerhoff | DEAN OF FINE ARTS
Since arriving at RISD in 1996, Robert Brinkerhoff has focused his teaching on illustration concepts classes and the synthesis of illustration and design. His illustrations have been exhibited both nationally and internationally, and have been included in numerous publications. Brinkerhoff has previously served as the head of Illustration and chief critic for RISD’s European Honors Program in Rome and has been awarded artist residencies in the US, Italy and the Republic of Ireland.
Joanne Stryker | DEAN OF EXPERIMENTAL AND FOUNDATION STUDIES
In her work Joanne Stryker explores the nature of artifacts and human perception through paintings depicting other works of art. Her two-dimensional interpretations of three-dimensional form—sculpture, pottery, friezes—exploit the interplay between various modes of perception, creating intricate still lifes outside the confines of time, place or historical context.
Damian White | DEAN OF LIBERAL ARTS
Damian White is a sociologist and political theorist with teaching and research interests in the sociology of design, architecture and adaptive reuse, urban and environmental sociology, critical theory, urban studies, and photography. He has served as head of the History, Philosophy + and the Social Sciences department and is a recipient of the Edna Schaffer Humanist Award and a John R. Frazier Award for excellence in teaching.
Patricia Barbeito | DEAN OF FACULTY + ASSOCIATE PROVOST OF TEACHING AND LEARNING
Patricia Felisa Barbeito is Professor of American Literatures in the Department of Literary Arts + Studies. Her research and teaching interests include race and ethnicity in American literature; the African American literary tradition; captivity and prison narratives; magical realism; the Latin American novel; and noir fiction and film. She is also a translator of contemporary Greek fiction and poetry, and in 2013 she was awarded the MGSA Constantinides Memorial Translation Prize for her translation of Elias Maglini's The Interrogation.
Margot Nishimura | Interim Dean of Libraries
Margot Nishimura is an art historian with more than two decades of experience in teaching, curatorial practice and administration in museums and libraries. Providing leadership for The Fleet Library, the Nature Lab, the Center for Arts & Language, and Campus Exhibitions, in past years at RISD she was a lecturer in art history and, from 2010–11, Academic Affairs' director of academic planning and assessment. More recently Nishimura held leadership roles at the Newport Restoration Foundation and Brown University's John Carter Brown Library.
Directors in academic commons areas
Gwen Farrelly | RISD Global
Gwen Farrelly leads RISD Global, guiding, supporting and overseeing the college’s academic internationalization and global engagements through the development of global programs and partnerships, hub sites, multiyear initiatives and international relations. Farrelly’s PhD research at the Graduate Center, CUNY, focuses on postwar art in a global context, and she teaches courses addressing global art history.
Jennifer Liese | Center for Arts & Language
Jennifer Liese oversees the Center for Arts & Language, a college-wide resource offering academic support and advocacy in a range of communication areas through peer tutoring, staff advising, workshops, lectures and other resources. She holds an MA in Modern Art HIstory, Theory and Criticism from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Mark Moscone | CAMPUS EXHIBITIONS
Mark Moscone 88 PR directs the Campus Exhibitions office, overseeing RISD’s largest and most widely used exhibition spaces: Woods-Gerry Gallery, Sol Koffler Graduate Student Gallery and the Gelman Gallery. He and his staff work closely with students to provide them with crucial exhibition experience in a professional gallery setting. A RISD graduate himself, Moscone worked at the RISD Museum and as a coordinator for Campus Exhibitions before being promoted to director in 2007.
Neal Overstrom | EDNA W. LAWRENCE NATURE LAB
Biologist, designer and educator Neal Overstrom has been director of the Nature Lab since 2010. He earned a BS in Biology from the University of Connecticut, an MA in Zoology from Connecticut College and an MA in Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst.
Departments
Apparel Design Architecture Ceramics Digital + Media Experimental and Foundation Studies Film / Animation / Video Furniture Design Glass Graduate Studies Graphic Design History, Philosophy + the Social Sciences Illustration Industrial Design Interior Architecture Jewelry + Metalsmithing Landscape Architecture Literary Arts + Studies Painting Photography Printmaking Sculpture Teaching + Learning in Art + Design Textiles Theory + History of Art + Design