Photo: Martin Dee
Applicants to master’s and doctoral degrees are not affected by the recently announced cap on study permits. Review more details
Arts has more than 25 academic departments, institutes, and schools as well as professional programs, more than 15 interdisciplinary programs, a gallery, a museum, theatres, concert venues, and a performing arts centre. Truly unique in its scope, the Faculty of Arts is a dynamic and thriving community of outstanding scholars – both faculty and students.
Here, our students explore cutting-edge ideas that deepen our understanding of humanity in an age of scientific and technological discovery. Whether Arts scholars work with local communities, or tackle issues such as climate change, world music, or international development, their research has a deep impact on the local and international stage.
The disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches in our classrooms, labs, and cultural venues inspire students to apply their knowledge both to and beyond their specialization. Using innovation and collaborative learning, our graduate students create rich pathways to knowledge and real connections to global thought leaders.
UBC Library has extensive collections, especially in Arts, and houses Canada’s greatest Asian language library. Arts graduate programs enjoy the use of state-of-the-art laboratories, the world-renowned Museum of Anthropology and the Belkin Contemporary Art Gallery (admission is free for our graduate students). World-class performance spaces include theatres, concert venues and a performing arts centre.
Since 2001, the Belkin Art Gallery has trained young curators at the graduate level in the Critical and Curatorial Studies program in the Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory. The Master of Arts program addresses the growing need for curators and critics who have theoretical knowledge and practical experience in analyzing institutions, preparing displays and communicating about contemporary art.
The MOA Centre for Cultural Research (CCR) undertakes research on world arts and cultures, and supports research activities and collaborative partnerships through a number of spaces, including research rooms for collections-based research, an Ethnology Lab, a Conservation Lab, an Oral History and Language Lab supporting audio recording and digitization, a library, an archive, and a Community Lounge for groups engaged in research activities. The CCR includes virtual services supporting collections-based research through the MOA CAT Collections Online site that provides access to the Museum’s collection of approximately 40,000 objects and 80,000 object images, and the Reciprocal Research Network (RRN) that brings together 430,000 object records and associated images from 19 institutions.
The Faculty of Arts at UBC is internationally renowned for research in the social sciences, humanities, professional schools, and creative and performing arts.
As a research-intensive faculty, Arts is a leader in the creation and advancement of knowledge and understanding. Scholars in the Faculty of Arts form cross-disciplinary partnerships, engage in knowledge exchange, and apply their research locally and globally.
Arts faculty members have won Guggenheim Fellowships, Humboldt Fellowships, and major disciplinary awards. We have had 81 faculty members elected to the Royal Society of Canada, and several others win Killam Prizes, Killam Research Fellowships, Emmy Awards, and Order of Canada awards. In addition, Arts faculty members have won countless book prizes, national disciplinary awards, and international disciplinary awards.
External funding also signifies the research success of our faculty. In the 2020-2021 fiscal year, the Faculty of Arts received $34.6 million through over 900 research projects. Of seven UBC SSHRC Partnership Grants awarded to-date, six are located in Arts, with a combined investment of $15 million over the term of the grants.
Since the 2011 introduction of the SSHRC Insight Grants and SSHRC Insight Development Grants programs, our faculty’s success rate has remained highly stable, and is consistently higher than the national success rate.
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Arts.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2019 | Success in employment for people with disabilities is often hampered by the negative attitudes of others within the workplace. Dr. Breen's research has resulted in his development of a questionnaire to measure these attitudes. The results of these measurements will aid in planning and determining the success of workplace training interventions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Rumak studied auditory brain processes in recreational cannabis users. He found that cannabis users had slower attentional processing under difficult task conditions. He also found that cannabis users had superior working memory performance. This research suggests that the lasting effects of cannabis use are more nuanced than previously assumed. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Kim asks what socio-historical contexts led to a linguistic understanding of the epithet 'Nation of Propriety in the East' for Korea. She traces the genealogy of representations of linguistic politeness, and examines how Koreans and non-Koreans constructed saturated cultural images of Korean honorifics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Matejova examined environmental disasters and their effects on nonviolent protest. She argues that uncertainty about disaster impacts plays a crucial role in the protest mobilization process. Her findings can be used to improve disaster communication practices, and open opportunities for resolution of social conflict. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Merkley examined critical limits of expert influence on public opinion. He showed that news media content rarely features relevant expert consensus and that some people are more likely to reject such consensus when exposed to populist rhetoric or cues from politicians. His work will aid efforts at science communication by journalists and experts. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Mendee studied the democratic developments of Mongolia and Kyrgyz Republic. He showed that the absence of geopolitical interests of great powers and presence of a strong political party are important for the democratization process. His research adds to our understanding of the politics of Asian small states. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Parmasad studied Type 2 diabetes among Indian Trinidadians in Debe, Trinidad and Tobago. She examined reasons people did not follow medical advice. These included structural inequities in healthcare access and incompatibilities with local sociocultural contexts. Her findings highlight the importance of tailoring standardized treatment regimens. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Hibbert examined how current mood state impacts ratings of self-reported personality traits. Her findings help clarify the interplay of emotion and self-perceptions, and increase confidence in the use of self-report measures of personality across varying affective contexts. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Hsu studied trade politics and its relations with historical development of nationalism and populism in Taiwan. Her research unravels multiple drivers and complex forms of discursive mediation that contributed to trade and economic liberalization. It challenges conventional understanding of neoliberalism and indicates space for social change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Lanthier studied how people use a speaker's eye gaze, hand gestures, and vocal signals to infer, tune out or be attentive to what a speaker says. This knowledge will aid in the design of more effective learning environments, and will help us to develop a better understanding of human communication and social interaction. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |