As a faculty member in the Division of Architecture + Design, Center for Arts & Language faculty mentor, and author of Mapping the Intelligence of Artistic Work, Anne supports students across disciplines in conceptualizing and writing their Master's thesis. Using a process of appreciative inquiry, she works together with students to draw out, clarify, and nurture the root of their work, locate and build ideas, develop a voice, and give meaningful form to the thesis document.
Anne began teaching at Rhode Island School of Design in 1996—three years after earning a PhD in Art and Media Studies from the University of Toronto. Since then her work as a writer, curator, educator, and critic has played a defining role in graduate education here.
Within a number of contexts and courses—as instructor, thesis advisor, mentor, and critic—Anne champions the role of thesis writing. Known for fostering rich cross-disciplinary learning environments of inquiry, team building and influence, she teaches seminars such as Mapping the Intelligence of Your Work, Origin Point, Investigations: Betwixt and Between, and Graphic Design Graduate Thesis.
Her pedagogical imperative is to support the individual needs of students by mining the logical bases of their work, helping them to respond to the demands of their ideas in the process of articulating a voice. Biannually she curates exhibitions that showcase graduate thesis writing and research. In 2012 Anne earned the John R. Frazier Award for Excellence in Teaching, the highest honor accorded to RISD’s most gifted faculty members.
As a writer and curator with research interests in phenomenology and interpretive human studies—including poetics and mapping—West has had projects featured on CBC/Radio-Canada, in museum and gallery exhibition essays in the US and Canada, in art journals and through initiatives with numerous art schools and organizations. Since the publication of her book Mapping the Intelligence of Artistic Work (Moth Press, 2011), her work has become widely recognized by other institutions—both nationally and internationally—for its leadership in the area of writing and creative practice.
Anne frequently lectures and conducts workshops at other colleges and universities including Northeastern University, Maine College of Art & Design, MassArt, Cornish College of the Arts, Kentucky College of Art+Design, Vermont College of Fine Arts, Connecticut College, NSCAD University, and Wheaton College. She served on the advisory committee for Mindful Choices, a pedagogical initiative at Clark University funded by the Mellon Foundation and inspired in part by her work.
Graduate Written Thesis Faculty Mentor
The Master’s Written Thesis Handbook
This guide to thesis development is best used in discussion and negotiation with your Graduate Program Director and other thesis advisors. It may also be used as part of a workshop structure to explore in conversation with others the ideas and possibilities most appropriate to your own work.
Articles for RISD
Investigations: Betwixt and Between
Int|AR Journal, vol. 1
Department of Interior Architecture, Rhode Island School of Design, 2019, 36-43
On an intellectual and emotional level, an exploration of the between is an abstract and mysterious process, yet on a formal level, it presents an opportunity for concrete and precise action. What follows are principles of inflection that map a pedagogy. I’ve structured these writings to include a concise view of students’ process to show how they consider various forms, states, and contexts of the between.
Notes: Carolee Schneemann in Real Time
v.1: A RISD Grad Journal, 2016, 163-166
Carolee Schneemann, a pioneer of 1960s feminist art, began her talk "How Things Go Wrong" (RISD Auditorium, March 22, 2016), lying concealed under a layer of blankets, waving two American flags. Then she struggled to her feet—with assistance—taking her place on stage like a resurrected version of Liberty Leading the People.
Tactics of Documentation
Written by Sameer Farooq and Anne West for the Document. Document. Document exhibition, Sol Koffler Graduate Student Gallery, RISD, September 9-24, 2014 (broadsheet)
Take a few steps back from a finished work and what is found is a space that is live and in motion. It's a space based on possibility rather than certitude and imbued with fluidity of transformative action.