The course will examine ways that many media, especially film, respond to the great social forces of their time and their culture. Some films, and other creative expressions, reflect an inherent endorsement or criticism of the politics contemporary to them. We will examine social critics' roles in some of the influential movements of the West in the 20th century--the Russian Revolution, German Nazism, the New Deal, World War Two, the Cold War and Third World Liberation movements. Requirements include readings and screenings from each of the eras covered, written assignments and exams, and participation in class discussions. In addition to three hours of class each week, there will be evening film screenings.

Elective

As the study of behavior and mental processes, psychology allows us to better understand how people think, feel and act. This introductory course provides a broad overview of the major content areas within the field of psychology (e.g., physiological, developmental, social and cognitive psychology) and will introduce you to the psychological theories and research used to understand human behavior. We will cover a wide variety of topics, including how people learn, process and store information, why people possess distinct personalities, how social situations and cultural norms affect our behavior, how we grow and develop throughout our lives, etc. Throughout the course we will critically evaluate the merit of classic psychological theory and research in understanding people's thoughts, feelings and actions in real world situations. This course will provide a broad knowledge base for those interested in taking upper level psychology classes.

Elective

In this course, we will investigate two central questions: how are sounds shaped by place and power, and how are place and power ​​negotiated/reconstituted in and through sound? Building on the works of Canadian composer R. Murray Schafer, this course will explore "soundscapes" as fecund sites of social and political inquiry. Through readings, recordings, and soundwalks, we will question how the soundscape functions both as a sonic place and as a way of making sense of that place. The course will include lectures, discussions, and short writing assignments. For the final project, students will analyze a soundscape of their choosing, paying specific attention to its structural components (keynote sounds, signals, soundmarks, etc.) as well as its social, political, and economic resonances.

Elective

Inventive Political Ecologies is a HPSS elective and NCSS core seminar. The course provides an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of Inventive Political Ecologies. This course will critically interrogate the many different proposals for inventive political ecologies that have emerged out of the critical social sciences, technology and engineering studies and the broad fields of design, planning and architecture. We will collectively discuss and debate what these inventive political ecologies might offer for addressing and acting on the environmental and climate crisis. We will consider ways in which discussion of “invention” and “innovation” can both open up and sometimes narrow eco-political and environmental discussions. Finally, we will continually consider which inventive political ecologies might help us move towards designing and building more just post-carbon futures.

Graduate students register for GRAD 702G - INVENTIVE POLITICAL ECOLOGIES.

Elective

We are in the midst of an ecological and climate crisis. Could cities and our urban worlds become key spaces for solutions? The aim of this course is to sociologically examine the past, present and future relations between ‘cities’, urbanization and nature; to introduce students to urban political ecology as a sociological methodology for exploring urban environments and to encourage empirical, normative and imaginative reflection on the possibilities (and potential dangers) that lie behind discourses of ‘green urbanism’. Surveying an exciting range of cities across time and space and capture, we will explore the many dynamic relationships that cities have with their surrounding ecologies and non-human natures. We will examine how a diverse range of reconstructive discourses of urban sustainability, from techno-centric plans to re-engineer cities, to discussions of ‘urban environmental justice’, to utopian plans to facilitate new urban social ecologies are vying to shape the future of cities. Finally, we will consider what role art, design, architecture and planning, politics and policy might play in shaping the future of our eco-urban worlds.

A version of this course was taught previously as an S101: Topics in History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences.  If you took this topic as your S101, please do not enroll in this course.

Elective

We are in the midst of an ecological and climate crisis. Could cities and our urban worlds become key spaces for solutions? The aim of this course is to sociologically examine the past, present and future relations between ‘cities’, urbanization and nature; to introduce students to urban political ecology as a sociological methodology for exploring urban environments and to encourage empirical, normative and imaginative reflection on the possibilities (and potential dangers) that lie behind discourses of ‘green urbanism’. Surveying an exciting range of cities across time and space and capture, we will explore the many dynamic relationships that cities have with their surrounding ecologies and non-human natures. We will examine how a diverse range of reconstructive discourses of urban sustainability, from techno-centric plans to re-engineer cities, to discussions of ‘urban environmental justice’, to utopian plans to facilitate new urban social ecologies are vying to shape the future of cities. Finally, we will consider what role art, design, architecture and planning, politics and policy might play in shaping the future of our eco-urban worlds.

A version of this course was taught previously as an S101: Topics in History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences.  If you took this topic as your S101, please do not enroll in this course.

Elective

Designers and architects are constantly making objects, systems, services, infrastructures but they are also involved in dream making, desire shaping and negotiating power relations. The aim of this class is to introduce students in an accessible way to the wide-ranging insights that a sociology of design and architecture offers for understanding and evaluating the contours of our current designed economies and possible future designed worlds. We will explore design and architecture as forms of classed, raced and gendered labor and look at the tensions that have long existed between professional designers and publics. We will consider the ways in which the mainstream design industry is shaped by and a shaper of politics and culture and consider how it is embedded within and maintains markets, fossil capitalism, consumer culture and colonialism. We will appraise what sociologists and design theorists have to say about possible future design economies and societies based on digital surveillance, automation/robotics, and bio/geo-engineering. Finally, we will critically examine at a range of critical design social movements: from design justice to decolonial designers, feminist designers to designs for decarbonization and sustainable transitions which argue more just and ecological design worlds are still possible. 

Elective

Designers and architects are constantly making objects, systems, services, infrastructures but they are also involved in dream making, desire shaping and negotiating power relations. The aim of this class is to introduce students in an accessible way to the wide-ranging insights that a sociology of design and architecture offers for understanding and evaluating the contours of our current designed economies and possible future designed worlds. We will explore design and architecture as forms of classed, raced and gendered labor and look at the tensions that have long existed between professional designers and publics. We will consider the ways in which the mainstream design industry is shaped by and a shaper of politics and culture and consider how it is embedded within and maintains markets, fossil capitalism, consumer culture and colonialism. We will appraise what sociologists and design theorists have to say about possible future design economies and societies based on digital surveillance, automation/robotics, and bio/geo-engineering. Finally, we will critically examine at a range of critical design social movements: from design justice to decolonial designers, feminist designers to designs for decarbonization and sustainable transitions which argue more just and ecological design worlds are still possible. 

Elective

This course is a fast-paced journey into designing a physical computing device. Students will gain a solid foundation in the essential technologies behind most modern electronics. Throughout the course, they will build several microcontroller-based electronics projects using devices like the Arduino series. The course prepares students to be the future generation of creatives by treating electronics like any other materials for creative practices, exploring their properties, implications, and possibilities. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with the knowledge, skills, and mindset to use technologies to fuel their creative decisions and expand their creative horizons. A brief introduction to the New Product Development process in the tech industry will be given as a starting point for discussions on the holistic impact of technology on humanity and society.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $50.00

Elective

In the Cohen Brother’s movie, “The Hudsucker Proxy”,  the main character pulls out a piece of paper with a circle on it and expounds “You know for kids”. Eventually it becomes clear that he is pitching the idea of the Hula hoop. A toy whose origin dates back go back to at least 500 BC. Humans are innate designers especially when it comes to pleasure, amusement and distractions. This course will explore one of the most effective solutions of these needs: toys. 

Using Cubebot, a toy I designed in 2009, as our touch point. We will focus on the relationships people have with toys, games and playthings they grew up with. For the first three weeks you will be given three assignments to create a toy that fulfills a certain need. The final two weeks will be an opportunity to resolve one of your initial designs.  

Elective

Dear Student,

No matter what professional design direction we choose, we will work with people. This studio is about cultivating a people-centric design practice. Public engagement is about listening, and is
an intricate process that informs decisions and approaches towards change.

We will begin by co-creating our studio’s space, and practice intentional methods for
collaboration and critique. Our first projects will be to find the tools and spaces where we already engage with people. We will learn about concepts like the ‘user’, then interrogate and integrate them meaningfully into our work through understanding our positionality, exercising question design, interview protocols and survey best practices.

Larger projects in this studio will include a collaboratively curated experience for our ID
community. We will practice prototyping with smaller sketch models, and at full scale with power tools and found materials. Assignments will be based on creating presentations, short videos, sketches, models and mapping tools. We will learn more about the city of Providence and other communities through case studies, documentaries, field trips, archives, walks and conversations with people. This studio is about finding unconventional connections by studying existing public engagement, learning about its historically complex and problematic contexts and systems, and ethnographic practices, and by designing intentional and inclusive experiences for people.

Sincerely,

Ayako Maruyama
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Design is often seen as neutral, sleek, and detached—but what happens when we reclaim it as a tool for protest, liberation, and authentic self-expression? In this social design course, we reject the sterile in favor of the deeply personal, exploring how our identities and lived experiences shape the way we create. We break down barriers between art and design, 2D and 3D, institution and student body, working across disciplines to foster a design practice that is engaged, intersectional, and community-driven. Through a three-part exploration—self, personal community, and wider community—students will develop both an individual project and a collaborative project of substance with a local community partner. Discussions with institutional leaders, Rhode Island-based artists, designers, and changemakers will deepen our understanding of how design can be leveraged for social impact.

This SEI-tagged course provides a space to engage with social justice topics such as race, gender, sexuality, class, and human rights in a collaborative and supportive environment. We center historically marginalized voices, welcoming QTPOC and those who have struggled to integrate their lived experiences into their creative work. Here, design is not just a profession—it is a practice of care, resistance, and transformation. Whether you are an artist, activist, or simply someone looking to make meaningful work, you will find a space to explore, create, and connect.
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Mainstream games, such as Monopoly and Settlers of Catan, normalize extractive relations while
creating bitter competition between players. Meanwhile tools used in “community engagement” and “participatory design” in architecture, design, and planning fields create illusions of choice and public approval by gamifying public processes. This studio asks, how can games encourage a different set of relations and be a medium through which folks of all ages can practice care, collaboration, and learning at the grassroots level?

After examining their positionalities and analyzing existing board games, students will work in teams to develop their own semi-cooperative board games. The game development process will be introduced in stages as students critically discuss how design can both help and/or harm people with relevant personal, social, and political perspectives. Deliverables will include concept sketches, worldbuilding stories, rulebooks, zines, physical crafted prototypes and components, and student-organized playtesting sessions. Students must consider how to align their design decisions with their core values and goals, how to source materials ethically and sustainably, and how might their game be played and produced in community - all while ensuring the game is playable and fun!
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Why did ancient Peruvians use knots to write numbers? How did Persians traditionally make ice without electricity? In this studio, we will examine these and other questions by recreating traditional technologies and examining different forms of knowledge from around the globe, in order to open the door for other viewpoints in our design practice.

We will begin the semester by exploring different cultural understandings of concepts like time and safety. After recreating some of these traditional technologies, we will then respectfully build new objects based on these ancient approaches.

In the second half of the semester, we will examine the specific cultures and subcultures that we each belong to and design new objects and technologies that spring from these different ways of being.

This studio will involve lots of hands-on exploration and thinking through making – please come with a curious and open mind and be ready to have some serious fun!
 

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Have we considered what it truly means to critique? This course explores the role of critique, dissects real-life cases and challenges existing methodologies to foster more just and equitable ways to look at design. We'll closely examine how professionals, clients, and stakeholders present and evaluate design work to critically reflect on methods within ID for ethical and inclusive practices. Engaging in workshops, role-playing, and discussions, students will reshape their understanding of design and critique, fostering decolonized, equitable, and empathetic approaches. By the conclusion of the studio students will have designed and developed tools and models for public and private critique. Students will be equipped with enriched perspectives and a comprehensive toolkit of critique and discussion methodologies that are continuously applicable in future practices.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

The ability to conceive and prepare for different future(s) is a vital human capability. Designers are frequently commissioned by multinational corporations, government agencies and cultural institutions for foresight and strategy work. But in times of uncertainty we all have to be futurists. This special topic studio will introduce students to the tools and techniques of foresight practice and discursive design. We will also examine afro-futurism, decolonised futures and participatory design to see how these practices are being used by communities and cultures rarely supported in futures practices. Students will finish the semester with designed objects and written products that support more resilient futures thinking.

If you have questions about the studio please do not hesitate to contact Charlie Cannon via email. cccannon@risd.edu.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Modern surroundings embody every aspect of our lived spaces, from the material surroundings of the clothes we wear, the objects that we cherish to the immaterial surroundings of networked mediated spaces (eg. Zoom, IG, AltspaceVR). The drive to simulate physical reality has led to more intuitive computational environments that more closely resemble the experience of the world around us yet is counterbalanced by the recognition of unpleasant effects of digital technologies such as anxiety and fatigue and the need for environments supportive of physical and mental health.  This course offers students an opportunity to learn CLO3D, an apparel and soft goods simulation software, in concert with other 3D capture and modeling tools, to explore the possibilities for the design of sensory surroundings, both material and immaterial. Readings and presentations on visual haptics, somatic therapy and neuroaesthetics will provide a theoretical framework to ground these material explorations. Textile skills (eg. sewing, knitting, embroidery), while not required, will probably lead to more meaningful explorations.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

This course is intended to introduce basic sewing skills and soft goods construction techniques in bag making and soft product design. Students will learn how to operate standard industrial sewing machines and create three-dimensional products from flat patterns. Fabric and notion selection for product performance will be taught as students learn to prototype and create final models of bags and soft products. Access to a portable sewing machine is suggested, as the eight industrial machines will be shared. You will be given some basic sewing supplies but can purchase additional materials based on your preferences.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Building off Metals I, this course equips industrial designers with essential metalworking skills to fabricate prototypes, simple tools, and functional hardware components. Techniques taught are designed to be useful both in a full metalworking studio and in a smaller more sparsely equipped studio. We will be working with brass, steel, and tool steel for each student to fabricate their own metal-marking scribe, an adjustable-angle pocket bevel, and a functional hardware component of their own design.

Through step-by-step instruction, we will understand the working characteristics of metals, mastering layout and marking techniques, and executing fundamental fabrication processes—including cutting, drilling, filing, sanding, silver brazing, and heat treating. 

Participants will gain confidence using a range of tools, from hand tools like hammers and files to shop equipment such as drill presses, band saws, stationary sanders, and oxy-acetylene torches.
By the end of the course, students will have not only refined their metalworking skills but also developed a deeper understanding of material properties, craftsmanship, and the integration of metal components into their design work.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design

Emergent Forms is a studio that invites students to explore form through a hands-on, material-driven design process. Working with a range of materials—each with its own structure, resistance, and expressive potential—students create prototypes as tools for thinking, testing, and discovery. The course encourages close observation of how forms evolve in nature—through movement, tension, repetition, and structure—and how those principles can inform human-made design. Through iterative making, students develop an understanding of space, proportion, and meaning, while also learning to understand themselves through design, reflect on their process, and communicate ideas with intention. Projects may range from tabletop objects to small furniture, giving students opportunities to work across scales while developing a personal design language—one that grows from curiosity, material sensitivity, and the intelligence of making.

Major Requirement | BFA Industrial Design