Liberal Arts

At RISD the exploration of both studio arts and liberal arts makes for a powerful experience. In fact, RISD stands out among art schools for its emphasis on liberal arts study. Expert faculty lead classes spanning a diverse range of scholarly areas, including anthropology, biology, creative writing, literature, history, performance studies, philosophy, religion, sociology and more.
Departments and programs
Through our liberal arts education, we aim to provide you with a strong general education, offer possibilities for focused study and to foster opportunities for deepening and enriching your art and design practice. In our classes you will learn to articulate ideas with independence and confidence, think creatively, critically and analytically and develop a lifelong curiosity about the world.
Our division is home to four departments—History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences, Literary Arts and Studies, Theory and History of Art and Design and Teaching + Learning in Art + Design—and two interdisciplinary programs, Global Arts and Cultures and Nature–Culture–Sustainability Studies. Follow the links below for more information about RISD’s liberal arts programs.
undergraduate concentration
undergraduate concentration
undergraduate and graduate concentration
MA / MAT / certificate
undergraduate and graduate concentration
In the classroom
Liberal Arts at RISD provides a strong general education, offers possibilities for focused study and deepens and enriches art and design practice. Through liberal arts study you learn to articulate ideas with independence and confidence, think creatively, critically and analytically, and develop a lifelong curiosity about the world.



Message from the dean
Our dean, Patricia Barbeito, welcomes you to Liberal Arts at RISD. Her message highlights how liberal arts enriches your RISD education, and invites you to explore our curriculum offerings.
Liberal Arts news and stories
Students in an interdisciplinary fall course learn to observe the living world in search of design strategies grounded in planetary health.
Hyperallergic reviews book about the 1923 RISD alum by art historian and RISD faculty member Suzanne Scanlan.
RISD faculty member Jonathan D.S. Schroeder, the scholar who rediscovered the narrative, said he hopes the book will restore fugitive and abolitionist John S. Jacobs to history.