About the Division
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. Faculty lead diverse classes spanning anthropology, biology, creative writing, literature, history, performance studies, philosophy, religion, sociology and more. The mission of the Liberal Arts division is threefold: to provide a strong general education, to offer possibilities for focused study, and to foster opportunities for deepening and enriching art and design practice. In Liberal Arts classes students learn to articulate ideas with independence and confidence; think creatively, critically and analytically; and develop a lifelong curiosity about the world.
The division is home to four departments and an interdisciplinary graduate program. The Department of History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences (HPSS) offers a wide variety of courses on the nature of human life, past and present. The curriculum spans many disciplines, from anthropology and religion to political science and American studies. The courses students take in the Department of Literary Arts and Studies (LAS) provide a basis for engaging in culture as artists, designers, writers, performers and citizens. The Department of Teaching and Learning in Art and Design (TLAD) offers a Master of Arts (MA) and Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT). This graduate-level department fosters innovative teaching in art and design within and beyond traditional education settings. Spanning time periods and embracing diverse perspectives, the Department of Theory and History of Art and Design’s (THAD) courses offer a deeper understanding of artistic expression across cultures and throughout history. The interdisciplinary graduate program, Global Arts and Cultures (GAC) brings together the humanities and social sciences with studies in visual, performative, and literary arts. GAC fosters inquiry into making in relation to systems of power and resistance.
Patricia Barbeito, Dean
MESSAGE FROM THE DEAN
Welcome to the Division of Liberal Arts! James Baldwin once wrote that the role of the artist was to “illuminate that darkness, blaze roads through that vast forest, so that we will not, in all our doing, lose sight of its purpose, which is, after all, to make the world a more human dwelling place.” At RISD, the liberal arts are fundamental to an arts and design education as just such a “practice of freedom” (hooks), essential to the “training of the mind to think” (Einstein) and as a means of “attaining and sustaining curiosity and humility” (Delbanco). In a nutshell, the liberal arts curriculum provides students with an exciting range of opportunities to both deepen and broaden their understanding of the world and the role and responsibilities of their art and design practice within it, while also helping them develop confidence in the analytical and communication skills essential to their creative and professional lives.
Comprised of four departments — History, Philosophy, and the Social Sciences; Literary Arts and Studies; Theory and History of Art and Design, and Teaching and Learning in Art and Design — and an interdisciplinary graduate program, the division is home to a faculty passionate about their teaching and scholarship, whose innovations in the classroom often depend on their scholarly and creative experimentations. On the whole, students can expect small, highly engaged classrooms that will challenge them to read, write, and analyze deeply and critically, develop their imagination and independence of thought, and think about complicated issues from a range of different perspectives, thus cultivating their ability to locate their work in informed, socially responsible ways.
I invite you to visit us either in person or online to explore our exciting curriculum and witness the commitment of our faculty and students to making the world we live in “a more human dwelling place.”
ABOUT PATRICIA BARBEITO
Patricia Felisa Barbeito (PhD, Comparative Literature, Harvard University) is Professor of American Literatures. She teaches courses on 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.
Currently, her research focuses on African-American literature and culture of 1940s-1960s, in particular the protest literature of the period. Based on this research, she is working on a book about African-American author Chester Himes titled, One Jump Ahead of Disaster: The Politics of Race, Interracial Sex, and Literary Style in Chester Himes’s Writing.
Read more about Patricia on RISD Faculty pages.
A Timeline of the Division
RISD begins to hire instructors with expertise in Art History and Mathematics to support its programs in Normal Art (art education) and Architecture.
The teacher should give clear illustrations of the principles of art … he [sic] ought to deliver illustrated lectures upon historical ornament—Art History, Applied Design,—Color, botanical analysis, anatomy of the human figure, etc. etc.
—Charles A. Barry, Head Master, 1878
RISD establishes its first formal Liberal Arts-oriented programs to support its first degree, the Bachelor of Art Education; this leads to the founding of the Division of Liberal Arts in 1940.
Again and again I have had men and women high up in the art professions strongly endorse those values resulting from courses in the liberal arts.
—Royal B. Farnum, Educational Director, 1931
RISD President John R. Frazier initiates a decade-long effort to increase required Liberal Arts study at RISD, citing study in the Humanities and sciences as “essential if one is to successfully relate oneself and one’s work to the society in which we live.”
Rhode Island School of Design's Division of Liberal Arts is dedicated to the development of responsible and responsive personalities, without which design education is not only futile but may even be socially unjustifiable.
—John R. Frazier, RISD President, 1956
In response to student complaints and expressed frustrations among some studio faculty, Liberal Arts requirements are reduced for both Bachelor's and Master's degrees. This is part of a wider agitation for more student choice in higher education during the 1960s.
I think it is only because of tradition that we retain required Liberal Arts. Can we dispense with it?
—Russell Germond, Chairman of Graduate Studies, 1969
The role of Liberal Arts is the subject of much debate in the College, with review committees, faculty, and students wrestling with how—and how much—Liberal Arts should be offered to RISD students.
I am a firm believer in the Collegium concept. In this context, Rhode Island School of Design has a unique opportunity for higher learning in Humanistic Study.
— Tom Ockerse, Professor of Graphic Design, 1982
Responding to direction from its accrediting body, the National Association of Schools of Art and Design, RISD reestablishes 42 required credits of Liberal Arts study in 1991 and begins to establish degree Concentrations.
RISD aspires to be the place where great design ideas take shape through a broad Liberal education, enabling our graduates to project their creativity on the dynamics of their own time and culture.
—Roger Mandle RISD President, 2000
Credits — Images from top: 1: 1902 Class photo, RISD Archives // 2: College Building (the Old Library), ca. 1936, RISD Archives // 3: John R. Frazier in the Studio of Thomas Atkins, sculptor and teacher at RISD (detail), ca. 1910, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution // 4: College Building, view of circulation desk in former library, date unknown, RISD Archives // 5: RISD Museum of Art, Radeke Memorial Garden, 1934, RISD Archives // 6: Harry Callahan, Providence, 1984
