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 | Dr. Tadaki examined the implementation of an ambitious freshwater policy in Aotearoa New Zealand. By analyzing how different actors influenced the implementation process, his research shows that there is space for political struggle over policy outcomes, even after a policy has been written. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Barrus examined gambling behaviour. His work demonstrated that gambling cues such as flashing lights cause rats to make risky choices, and that gambling and normal decision-making rely on different networks of brain regions and brain chemicals. This research helps us to understand why gambling becomes addictive for some people. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Carter studied the role of art education after student revolt between 1968 and 1972 in the United States and France. She argued that at a moment when the traditional vehicles of activism failed, the university classroom became one place where artists and students alike could negotiate new forms of political resistance. | Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Simpson studied recent conflicts over oil pipeline developments in North America. He interviewed activists working to prevent the Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion. His work contributes to understanding how contemporary environmental movements attempt to build relations of solidarity with First Nations and Indigenous land and water defenders. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Albarran investigated new discourses about reproduction in contemporary Spanish literature. She analyzed the work of three women authors that explore the topic of procreation through novels, memoirs, and diaries. This work informs the concept's critical re-evaluation in light of technological change and a rethinking of some of the basic tenets of feminist thought. | Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Studies (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Zell examined the role of labour recruiters who facilitate temporary migration for lower-skilled jobs in Canada. She developed a conceptual framework for understanding them as mobile petty sovereigns, who exercise discretionary power at borders. Her work reveals where and how state power is asserted and resisted in globalized labour markets. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Diaz studied the prehistoric diet of dogs and other animals over the last 3,000 years in British Columbia. She identified regionally specific patterns in diet that generally don't change through time. This research provides some of the first data of its kind to B.C. archaeology and highlights the importance of understanding locally-oriented past relationships between humans and animals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Gan conducted multi-sited anthropological research amongst educated Russian migrants in Moscow, Paris, Berlin, and New York, showing that Russian state strategies have historically relied, and continue to rely on migrant discourses in defining Russian national identity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2019 | Dr. Setiawan investigated how Hummel adapted Mozart's music to suit the early nineteenth-century audience. She found that while Hummel modified select passages, Hummel still showed respect for Mozart's original materials. For pianists, Hummel's arrangement can serve as an example that mediates between Mozart and a new audience in a balanced way. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano (DMA) |
| 2019 | Dr. Salvosa studied Alberto Jonas' Master School and its role in early twentieth-century piano playing and virtuosity. He discovered that the Master School was the most comprehensive work written in the early twentieth century on piano playing, which still stands as an invaluable resource tool for pianists of today. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano (DMA) |