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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2018 | What does it mean to live in a multicultural society? Dr. Ho examined how participating in ethnic organizations can help individuals integrate into Canada while maintaining their ties to an ancestral country. Her work demonstrates how organizations facilitate individuals' identity development and foster connections to both the ancestral country and Canada. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Mahlberg explored the biography and works of the Finnish composer Leevi Madetoja who lived from 1887-1947. This study, the first of its kind in English, considers Madetoja in light of issues of national identity and politics, and provides an overview of his place and musical contributions in the context of European musical culture. | Doctor of Philosophy in Music, Emphasis Musicology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Kaldas studied perfectionism in patients. She examined how the need to appear perfect impacted patients' interpersonal relations and the process of group psychotherapy. This work can help inform clinicians on how to better attend to and address perfectionistic patients, allowing them to benefit more from psychotherapy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Silveira studied how the brain allocates cognitive effort for lucrative outcomes. His work identified regions and neurotransmitters that bias organisms to put in mental effort for outcomes they want. Such work sheds light on how these processes may be disrupted in disorders characterized by blunted effort exertion, such as depression and schizophrenia. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Cornwall developed a method of estimating the causal effect of social interactions on online social networks. He applied this method to show how social media users' emotions are affected by the emotions of their friends. This research helps to quantify the importance of emotions in written communication. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Preus developed a poetics of early modern theatrical form and argued that Shakespeare's characters consistently evoke the anxieties of being recognized and of belonging to given worlds. Her work demonstrates how these anxieties are articulated vis-a-vis a process of admission, both theatrical and metaphysical, and equally illusory. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Lachance's research makes a significant contribution to our understanding of Indigenous Theatre on Turtle Island. Her work provides excellent historical context and advances an original and deeply persuasive argument about the importance of dramaturgy in the conceptualization and embodied experience of Relational Indigenous theatrical methods. | Doctor of Philosophy in Theatre (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Prouse examined the relationship between infrastructure upgrades and military police occupation in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. She found that, together, they were used to secure territory for market formalization and often resulted in racial violence. Yet favela residents were central in re-shaping these projects for their own protection and needs. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Bil examined engagements between European and Maori plant sciences in nineteenth century Aotearoa New Zealand. He found that racist interpretations of Maori knowledge originated in work undertaken by scholars who lacked acquaintance with indigenous cultures and languages. This work contextualizes and helps to challenge present-day views. | Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD) |
| 2018 | Drawing on various constructivist critical modalities, such as integral ecology, embodied philosophy, and affect theory, Dr. Rubel noted the continuing marginalization of the etho-ecological metaphysics of British Romantic poetry, circa 1790 to 1822. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |