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 | Dr. Fahey's research took an interdisciplinary approach to studying media in order to examine different perspectives from which we remember the First World War in Canada. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Owen produced an original theoretical framework for understanding how neuroscience and theories of consciousness have influenced contemporary Anglo-American fiction. His analyses establish the genre of neurofiction as a literary response to some of the most significant philosophical and cultural questions of our time. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Gomez-Ramirez examined on-street sex work and transgender politics in Mexico City. She used a critical trans and sexual labour lens to understand how social class and informal vending practices shape the realities of low-income trans women. Her work contributes to rethinking common understandings about the key issues that affect transpeople today. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. O'Hearn examined the erotic book trade in Victorian England and provided a parallel textual history of print culture during that period. Gaining access to archives and making long lost erotic texts freely available to the public, Dr. O'Hearn was able to call attention to a traditionally overlooked genre of literature. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Letham studied the intersections of human settlement and shoreline change over the last 15,000 years around Prince Rupert Harbour, British Columbia. He reconstructed sea level history to identify early archaeological sites and studied how ancient human use and modification of shorelines transformed social organization on coastal landscapes. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Izquierdo studied the constructivist art movement that established itself in Montevideo, Uruguay during the nineteen thirties and forties. Although this movement has often been viewed as an individual enterprise of its founder Joaquin Torres Garcia, Dr. Izquierdo argues in favor of ways in which we can view the collective experience in arts. | Doctor of Philosophy in Hispanic Studies (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Yaylaci studied the impact of civil wars on citizens' political and social trust. She shows that ethnic wars and ideological wars have contrasting effects and indicate the importance of distinguishing between different war types when examining their consequences. Her research is informative for post war reconciliation and reestablishing political order. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. King analyzed the politics of education reform in Germany and France in response to international comparative assessments. He demonstrated that the resilience of the policy status quo depended on the nature of political institutions, with the degree of policy change resulting from the structure of policy design institutions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Rockwell explored older adults' experiences of moving to assisted living: a relatively new model of housing and support for older adults in BC. By comparing participants' stories with the larger values and regulations of assisted living, Dr. Rockwell identified areas for improvement, as well as promising practices to help residents settle in. | Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. De Rego developed a numerical model that simulates bank erosion and channel shifting on rivers. She used it to show how river stability is impacted by the construction and removal of dams. This research can be used to predict the long-term impact of dams on river dynamics. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |