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. Mancini explored how linguistics research on the production and reception of speech can contribute to understanding poetry, literature and literary history. He found that rumour, reported speech and unhappy laughter have been important forces in shaping literary canons. His work contributes to dialogue between social sciences and humanities. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2016 | Can infants learn about social conventions? Dr. Zhao studied how infants may learn about conventions, including using the common-ness of behaviours, and by looking at other people's emotional reactions. Her research shows that infants can learn about social conventions by observing those around them in the first year of life. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. May examined the neurological and social perception of language in young infants. These studies advance our understanding of language acquisition during the first year of life. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Why do some communities avoid armed conflict even when facing a significant threat? By studying the 20-year confrontation over coca in the Chapare region of Bolivia, Dr. Prest found that communities that resolve internal challenges collectively and inclusively seek out non-violent ways to resolve conflicts with other groups, including the state. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Crover studied the cultural history of the early modern Thames through plays, frost fairs, chronicle histories, and civic records. Her work revealed that the Thames shaped the construction of English national identity as much as desires for cultural dominance shaped English notions of the Thames. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Ohsawa examined the relationship between popular culture and social change in modern Japan. She explored the conceptualization of the human body and mind in relation to technologically enhanced beings in postwar Japanese science fiction. This research contributes to debates around the ethics of future mind/body/machine relations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Chiu studied how speech is planned and what details of an utterance are included in speech plans. He found that planned syllables are uttered rapidly and accurately when participants are startled by a loud sound. His findings provide insights into speech motor planning and coordination of speech movements. | Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Brasil analyzed how transformation of the historical consciousness of the Hwlitsum indigenous people (Canada), the Quilombo of Periperi (Brazil), and the neighborhood of La Marina (Cuba), has shaped collective identification through resilience. His research offers new ways to think about community political struggles foregrounding narratives of resistance. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Cheung showed that people tend to misunderstand the complex relationship between genes and behaviour, often assuming that our genes determine our behaviours. His research demonstrated several important consequences and may impact how we perceive things like having less control over one's weight or expressing greater leniency towards criminals. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2016 | Dr. Bushey explored how smartphones and social media sites are transforming photography. Her research examined the impact of technologies and social practices on the ownership and privacy of personal photographs and online images as legal evidence and archival sources. This research will inform how we share and store photos in social media sites. | Doctor of Philosophy in Library, Archival and Information Studies (PhD) |