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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Dr. Pesquita investigated human sensitivity to subtle differences in bodily cues that occur when someone else's attention is controlled by an internal choice versus an external cue. Her work brings a longstanding distinction between voluntary and reflexive attention into the realm of a modern topic: reading other's minds through action observation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Lore explored when, how, and why women in politics act to represent women's interests. Her findings revealed that the presence of women matters more in presidential than parliamentary systems and when electoral systems encourage personal rather than party votes. This has important implications on promoting a diverse representation in government. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Fox investigated the brain's ability to self-generate its own mental content independent of the external environment. His work illuminates how specific brain networks are differentially involved in generating particular types of mental content. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Hoellering showed how Turkish-German ethno-comedians occupy a social position similar to medieval jesters, and how their distinctive humor deflates stereotypes that have developed over centuries. His work helps to understand ethno-comedy as an effective platform for the cultural participation of marginalized groups. | Doctor of Philosophy in Germanic Studies (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Gravelle studied the politics of international financial market integration, and explained why some cross-border mergers between financial service firms are blocked by authorities while others are approved. This research sheds light on the independent role of financial market regulators in making important political decisions about the integration of the global economy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Kei explored the impact of household finances on seniors' activity in the labour market. She applied innovative techniques to investigate the effect that public pensions have on elderly immigrants' labour force participation and work intensity. She also studied the influence that immigration has on native-born households' decisions to move or stay where they are. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Tamminga developed methods to study river ecosystems using remote sensing with unmanned aerial vehicles. He applied these techniques to address how extreme flood events affect river morphology, hydraulics, and aquatic habitat. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Park studied the issue of clerical marriage in modern Korean Buddhism. Her research showed that this practice among Korean monks during the Japanese colonial period was a phenomenon of Buddhist modernity. These findings advance a more complete understanding of the way in which Buddhist ethics were intertwined with modernity and colonialism. | Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Narusevicius investigates Conceptual artists and their practices by focusing on the link with educational institutions, student protest movements, and a desire for autonomy in the 1960s and early 1970s. It is through an analysis of the relationship between Conceptual art and the various notions of autonomy that this research provides a deeper insight and understanding of Conceptual art. | Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Ludert studied the interactions of indigenous peoples and National Liberation Movements with organizations such as the UN, in relation to their conceptions of state sovereignty. He developed a theoretical framework and identified one important venue type. His work furthers our understanding of such political contexts and will inform public policy. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |