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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Dr. Boychuk studied the art of 16th-century Europe, with a focus on the works of Joris Hoefnagel. She demonstrated how Hoefnagel used illumination to attain a position of prominence at the courts of the Holy Roman Empire. Her research challenges established views of early modern illumination and adds to the scholarship on Central European art. | Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Wright studied the extermination of thousands of civilians during the Korean War. He proved that state prohibitions on mourning caused a crisis for surviving families, which led to unique forms of political resistance. Dr. Wright's research increases our understanding of state violence, human rights, and transitional justice. | Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. McCollum examined the influences and understandings that lie behind levels of political participation of young Canadians. She argued that political engagement is primarily fostered through social milieus that promote participation, and that increasing individualism in Western society is impacting young people's relationship with participation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Holroyd examined the influence of Canadian immigration policies on immigrant women. Her research demonstrated the value of neighbourhood-based settlement-oriented employment programs that recognize newcomers' skills, and that promote social and economic integration by fostering their sense of citizenship in Canada. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Do you think you can predict the behaviour of your competitors in strategic interactions? Dr. Calford studied the role that uncertain predictions of others' behaviour plays in strategic decision making. His research suggests that we can manipulate the degree of uncertainty in a strategic environment to influence behaviour in a predictable fashion. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Francis investigated the experiences of refugee youth in the Canadian criminal justice system. She found that humanist ideas about the human, the subhuman and the nonhuman are crucial in interpreting their experiences. Her findings contribute to conceptual understandings of the experiences of marginalized people in Canada. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Tong studied the earliest Chinese translations of the Christian Bible by Protestant missionaries, and demonstrated that factors such as patronage, rivalry, and networking often played a more important role than literary and linguistic considerations. His research provides new and challenging insights into the beginning of Chinese Protestantism. | Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Allen developed a mathematical framework for modeling how humans apply their knowledge of language to new situations. Experimental validations demonstrated that humans exhibit previously unknown capabilities | Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Rosenoff Gauvin studied how rural villages in Northern Uganda move on after decades of war and internal displacement. Emphasizing the importance of land rights in post-conflict contexts, she asserts that in wars where victims are also the perpetrators of violence, "justice" prioritizes living together again and rebuilding indigenous governance and community. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Rapid warming of the Arctic has accelerated permafrost thaw and altered environmental conditions. Dr. Cassidy studied the impacts of permafrost disturbances on vegetation and carbon fluxes in the Canadian High Arctic. Her findings indicate that permafrost disturbances have immediate and long lasting effects on tundra ecosystems. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |