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. Gardner examined the ancient history and archaeology of the Mani peninsula, a remote region in southern Greece. She studied the unique local identity of the inhabitants under the superpowers of Rome and Sparta, and presented a novel way to study marginal places in the ancient world. Hers is the most comprehensive work on ancient Mani to-date. | Doctor of Philosophy in Classics (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Koerner examined how concepts of place and resilience contribute to understanding interactions between charitable development programs and social enterprise initiatives in the world's largest NGO, BRAC Bangladesh. Her research offers insights into this complex and integrated approach in pursuit of long-term pathways toward lives of dignity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Jang examined eighteenth-century British literary depictions of women's sexual behaviour. Through a theoretical perspective that focuses on how human nature coevolved with culture to inform our behaviour, she explored how engagement with risk might shape women's erotic experiences. Her study revealed overlooked aspects of women's sexual nature. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Peotto examined the origin of colonial policies of ethnic cleansing directed against indigenous peoples in British North America, from the 1630s to the 1880s. He also surveyed popular beliefs which excused or minimized mass killings of indigenous peoples, and recast bounty hunters and racist vigilantes as folk heroes. | Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Ritts studied listening, sound-making, and musical composition to map out the politics of industrial development on the North Coast of British Columbia. This work illustrates the complex attachments of place, and the deepening forms of technological mediation, that shape negotiations with a rapidly changing environmental geography. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Stewart worked with youth born of forced relations in the rebel group, the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda. She identified their experiences of discrimination as a national and international problem of accountability and found creative ways they negotiate belonging. Her study will inform policy for those born of sexual violence in other wars. | Doctor of Philosophy in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Leder developed a novel skill-based, naturalist theory of mental health. | Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy (PhD) |
| 2018 | Dr. Kuo completed her DMA degree in music composition. She wrote a large orchestral work, titled Urban Suite, and several pieces of chamber music during her study. Her thesis, Fantasies, is a sixteen-minute suite for a chamber ensemble. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition (DMA) |
| 2018 | Dr. Piggot examined how organizations determine which strategies they should adopt in response to new climate change policies. Her work demonstrates that if the right support structures are in place, organizations can quickly come to terms with new requirements to address climate change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |
| 2018 | It is essential for the modern violist to be familiar with various methods of creating sound. Dr. Kwok explored extended techniques and demonstrated teaching methods for students of all ages with six commissioned etudes. Her work encourages students to use these techniques to expand their technical and expressive abilities on their instrument. | Doctor of Musical Arts in Orchestral Instrument (DMA) |