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The Faculty of Arts at UBC brings together the best of quantitative research, humanistic inquiry, and artistic expression to advance a better world. Graduate students in the Faculty of Arts create and disseminate knowledge in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Creative and Performing Arts through teaching, research, professional practice, artistic production, and performance.
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.
Research Centres
Research Facilities
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.
Research Highlights
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.
Schools / Departments
School
Department
Graduate Degree Programs
Recent Publications
This is an incomplete sample of recent publications in chronological order by UBC faculty members with a primary appointment in the Faculty of Arts.
Recent Thesis Submissions
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The Arthur of the March of Wales (ENGL - PHD)
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Pidgin poetics : language culture in modern China (ASIA - PHD)
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Statues in early modern English drama (ENGL - MA)
Doctoral Citations
A doctoral citation summarizes the nature of the independent research, provides a high-level overview of the study, states the significance of the work and says who will benefit from the findings in clear, non-specialized language, so that members of a lay audience will understand it.
| Year | Citation | Program |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Dr. Feir conducted her studies in labour economics and applied econometrics. Donna used statistical analysis to demonstrate the dramatic, long term consequences of Canada's Indian Residential School system. Her findings will help both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike in their quest for truth and reconciliation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Weaver conducted the first known qualitative study with marginalized drug-using fathers. They were partners of patients in a harm reduction maternity unit serving poor, substance-using pregnant women from Vancouver's downtown east side. This study revealed the nature and negative impact of father exclusion on these mothers, fathers and families. | Doctor of Philosophy in Social Work (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Brooks studied ways that attention and emotion can be adversely affected by circumstances, causing people to make moral mistakes. He found that there is no set of character traits that can protect against all of these effects in all circumstances, making it impossible for any individual to become morally perfect. | Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr.Banerjee's research produced a history of quantum physics in India during the first half of the twentieth century. He conducted extensive archival research in India, Canada and the United States. His research findings analyze how modern science was pursued in conjunction with, and as an instrument of Indian national liberation. | Doctor of Philosophy in History (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Nagamatsu examined the relationship between impaired attentional processing and falls in older adults. Her research provides the critical link between cognitive function and mobility. Her findings have the potential to inform future intervention strategies, to improve quality of life and independence among older adults. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Hill studied ways in which high school students are affected by their peers. He showed that school friends of the opposite gender reduce academic achievement, causing self-reported difficulties getting along with the teacher and paying attention in class. His findings indicate larger effects in mathematics and science, particularly for females. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Clerici examined the relationship between subculture and literature in modern Japan through his introduction of the concept of "subcultural affects." Using the writing and reception of author Yumeno Kyusaku as a test case, this research deals with questions of marginality, narrative and how texts travel through time and space. | Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. King studied how paramedics and their spouses cope with high levels of work stress. He showed that this stress transfers to the home and affects the health and relationships of the couples. The findings identify the forms of stress experienced by a population that is essential to pre-hospital care in Canada, informing policies and procedures. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Trew examined the goals people have for social interactions. She found that those who experienced positive emotions were less worried about avoiding rejection and that people with social anxiety who engaged in kind acts were less concerned about avoiding negative outcomes. This suggests that kindness may improve the treatment of social anxiety. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Drugge studied the political thought of Isaiah Berlin. Berlin's work was used to explore ways in which different accounts of moral conflict affect how we think about political action and judgment. Getting our account of moral conflict right, Dr. Drugge shows, can help us think more productively about political disagreement and compromise. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |