This course will focus on the cultural and artistic activities which came into being as a result of contacts between the civilizations of Europe and Asia (China in particular). Among the topics explored will be: the ancient world, the Silk Route and Buddhism, the nomads of Eurasia as agents of cultural exchange, early European travelers to China (Marco Polo), the Jesuits at the court of the Chinese emperors during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and finally the Western colonial experience.

This is a co-requisite course. Student must also register for HPSS S604 - Art and Religion on the Silk Road - Part B. 

Elective

Have you ever wondered how social situations guide how we think about and act toward others, what determines who we love and who we hate, how we form attitudes about our own and others behavior, what determines whether we will help or hurt others, or how we construct knowledge about the self? If so, social psychology addresses these questions and many more. Social psychology is the science of how others influence the way people think, feel, and act. The aim of this course is to familiarize you with current and classic research and theory in social psychology, help you to develop critical thinking skills about social-psychological phenomena, and stimulate you to think about the implications of social-psychological research for everyday living. For this course, students will complete readings from a textbook and articles. There be will be four quizzes and a final project applying one concept within social psychology to everyday life.

Elective

Millions of people around the world have been forced from their homes by interlinked factors including persecution, armed conflict and war, natural disasters, structural violence, and development projects. The seminar explores the “refugee” and “migrant” status and examines the refugee crisis and forced migration in a global perspective and through an interdisciplinary lens. It provides a historical background of the formation of the “refugee” concept going back to inter-war Europe and placing emphasis both on its construction in international law and on the precarious state that refugees and migrants face today globally through various case studies. The seminar also addresses the politics of humanitarianism, the role of international organizations, especially UNHCR, and the securitization of human rights as well as the ethnic, gendered, and religious identities being reshaped by forced displacement. 

The course is organized both chronologically and thematically, to understand the ways in which global migration and contemporary refugee crises have changed over time, highlighting continuities and ruptures especially in the construction of the refugee and the migrant as the “other.” Lectures and readings provide a global perspective but focus on regional case studies, often using a comparative and transdisciplinary framework. Similarly, writing assignments, lectures, and class materials will draw upon international relations, anthropology, gender studies, sociology, and history, and examine different types of sources, including academic books and journal articles, first-person narratives, and visual resources.

Elective

This corequisite course (Art and Religion on the Silk Road - Part B) is a required supplement to Art and Religion on the Silk Road - Part A. The course is designed as an additional workshop consisting of museum and library visits and hands on work on materials in those collections which relate to the topics explored in Part A. Readings will assigned ahead of these visits to gain an understanding of the material seen. Written responses to the readings and the visits are due weekly. In addition, to the RISD Museum collections (Asian Art, Costume and Textiles, Decorative Arts, Classical Antiquities) and the Fleet Library special collections, we will tentatively visit the John Carter Brown Library, the Hay Library and the Haffereffer Museum at Brown University. Provided funds will be available, we may visit the Boston Museum of Fine arts, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem MA, and the Harvard Art Museum.

This is a co-requisite course. Student must also register for HPSS S504 - Art and Religion on the Silk Road - Part A.

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

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.

In most advanced cultures of the world, the passion for sports has reached into many and unexpected aspects of society. As participants or observers, we all, at one time or another, recognize the power of sports as spectacle, distraction or metaphor. This course will examine the evolution of sport from competition among individual athletes in the ancient world through the rise of team sports in the 19th and 20th centuries. It will then consider the influence of sports on language, politics, gender identity, art and architecture, literature, media, and apparel, among others. Sports inevitably have an interrelation with class, race, and nationalism; and they have developed their own myth & ritual & hagiography, aesthetics, economy, cult of celebrity and statistical idiom. There will be readings, assigned papers, classroom presentations, an exam and field trips to local sports events.

Elective

This 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.  

Elective

Evil has long been a topic of study for theologians and philosophers, but has only recently been studied by psychologists. Although evil is an inherently subjective topic, we will attempt to take an objective, scientific approach to understanding why people engage in evil behavior. Thus, we will begin by attempting to suspend the notion that we can divide the world into good and evil, and instead understand the situational and psychological factors that could lead anyone to harm others. Specifically, we will focus on classic psychological studies that show how everyday people can be led to act in deplorable ways by manipulating the situational circumstances. We will also discuss how inter-group processes can lead to conflict and large scale acts of violence like war and genocide. Finally, we will study the nature of the psychopathic personality in order to better understand those individuals who feel no guilt or remorse for harming others (e.g., brutal dictators and serial killers). This is a very interactive class and will require you to contribute in discussion and prepare an in-depth presentation on an area of your own interest related to the psychology of evil.HPSS-S101 is a prerequisite for undergraduates.

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

Innovate and explore the world of soft goods (goods made with fabric, from handbags and stuffies to kites and blankets) without the slow limits of learning to harness sewing machines. Rouge Fibers throws out the rulebook on made-well and favors fast and rough experimentation with hand-stitching, heat welding, fusing, gluing, and weaving. We will emphasize iterative practices, focused on innovating with material and form, to create one-of-a-kind soft goods. 

In- class demos and workshops will equip students with techniques from traditional weaving and hand-sewing to darning and felt-forming. Students will create and fuse unconventional materials such as paper, non-wovens, bio plastics and natural fibers. Students will learn a variety of non-sewing construction techniques and introduce unconventional fastening methods of our own. 

For final projects, students will begin by defining their own design values, then learn how to incorporate them into their materials development and designs. The first 2-week project will be to create new materials, and joinery techniques, with an emphasis on novelty and innovation. Then, students will use these materials and techniques in two long-term design projects, one values-driven, and one fitting a niche market. Students will both work up from their design values towards a soft object and back down from a niche market-need to a market-fit product. We will learn how to present these works to honor the designers’ innovations. 

No major requirement or prior experience required, only a curious mind and desire to explore.  Students who have taken the Soft Goods class will be invited to advance their existing skills and learn new techniques.

Estimated Cost of Materials: $100.00 - $150.00

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

Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors were first conceptualized as story-based empathy-building devices by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, a renowned scholar in the field of sociologically engaged inclusive literature.

Windows represent the possibility of looking into another world, or another person’s experience. Mirrors represent the ways in which we might see ourselves reflected in the content or characters of a story. Sliding glass doors are emblematic of opportunities to not only view, but to step inside and inhabit an experience from a new perspective. In this course, we will delve into critical analysis through content, form, and practice in order to delve into the possibilities of multidisciplinary, multi-sensory storytelling. Through research, experimentation, prototyping, designed objects, facilitated experiences, and immersive environments, students will learn how to tell their own stories, advocate for stories that may be unheard, and imagine stories that we can aspire to.Windows, Mirrors, and Sliding Glass Doors were first conceptualized as story-based empathy-building devices by Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop, a renowned scholar in the field of sociologically engaged inclusive literature. 

Windows represent the possibility of looking into another world, or another person’s experience. Mirrors represent the ways in which we might see ourselves reflected in the content or characters of a story. Sliding glass doors are emblematic of opportunities to not only view, but to step inside and inhabit an experience from a new perspective. In this course, we will delve into critical analysis through content, form, and practice in order to delve into the possibilities of multidisciplinary, multi-sensory storytelling. Through research, experimentation, prototyping, designed objects, facilitated experiences, and immersive environments, students will learn how to tell their own stories, advocate for stories that may be unheard, and imagine stories that we can aspire to.

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