Introducing New Faculty in Race in Art & Design

Students are taking courses this semester from an expansive group of new faculty who focus on issues of race in art and design—a rapidly growing area of academic interest at RISD. Part of an exciting effort to expand the curriculum, tackle institutional racism and advance social equity, a number of faculty joined RISD this fall. Students have long advocated for more faculty whose work diverges from Eurocentric perspectives. Students and alumni from the RISD Anti-Racism Coalition and a group of BIPOC faculty played an essential role in urging the institution to begin this transformative effort—and generous support from RISD Trustee Kim Gassett-Schiller P 14 and Philip W. Schiller P 14 has made it possible for RISD to recruit and hire this extraordinary cohort.

Another faculty member, who will hold the eighth Schiller Family Professorship in Race in Art & Design, will join RISD next academic year. In addition, the Division of Fine Arts will launch a search this year for two more Schiller Family Professorships. Alongside the Schiller Family Professorships, through the use of open existing positions, more faculty with expertise in these areas will join RISD as the college has committed to continuing focused hiring in this area over the next four years.

“The ability for us to hire this cohort of faculty in a single year and at this moment in RISD’s history is nothing less than transformative for the college,” says Associate Provost for Social Equity & Inclusion Matthew Shenoda. “Each of these new faculty are steeped in a practice, scholarship and study of the nuanced ways issues of race and decoloniality impact their fields and their own work. This opportunity gives us the ability to build on a foundation we’ve begun and to push our curriculum more centrally into the future. It ensures that RISD will be able to continue to give our students a meaningful and relevant education in art and design.”