To be human is to wonder, to seek meaning, to discover. Faculty of Arts’ graduate students create and disseminate knowledge in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and the Creative and Performing Arts through teaching, research, professional practice, artistic production, and performance in the context of freedom of inquiry and intellectual curiosity.

Arts combines the strengths of the humanities, social sciences, and creative and performing arts to serve as an interdisciplinary hub for research, learning, and innovation. Whether Arts scholars work with local communities, or explore issues such as climate change, world music, or international development, their research has a deep and broad impact on the local and international stage.

Arts has 25 academic departments, institutes, and schools spanning the Humanities, Social Sciences, and Creative and Performing Arts 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 in the creative arts, humanities, and social sciences, ideas that deepen their understanding of our humanity and its central role in an age of scientific and technological discovery. The disciplinary and multi-disciplinary approaches in our classrooms, our labs, and in our 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

The 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 participated in the training of 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 aims to address 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 dedicated to collections-based research, an Ethnology Lab, a Conservation Lab, an Oral History and Language Lab supporting audio recording and digitization, a Library, an Archives, and a Community Lounge for the use of 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 nearly 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 51 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. We consistently attract high levels of external research funding, and our success rate in the SSHRC Insight Grants and SSHRC Insight Development Grants programs is consistently higher than the national success rate.

Graduate Degree Programs

Research Supervisors in Faculty

Name Academic Unit(s) Research Interests
Abdul-Mageed, Muhammad Department of Linguistics, UBC iSchool (Library, Archival and Information Studies) Deep Learning, Natural Language Processing, Machine Learning, Computational Linguistics, Social Media Mining, Arabic
Abrutyn, Seth Department of Sociology Suicide, Adolescent Suicide, Sociological Theory, Mental Health, Social Psychology, Emotions
Adriasola Munoz, Ignacio Alberto Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory investigates responses by artists and intellectuals to the crisis of aesthetic and political representation triggered by the failed protests against the US-Japan Security Treaty of 1960, and in particular their reliance on depictions of the sexual and geographical margins in their articulation of an aesthetics of political disaffection.
Ahmed, Rumee Department of Asian Studies Islam,Muslims,law,theology,Quran,Koran
Al-Kassim, Dina Department of English, Institute for Gender, Race, Sex and Social Justice Artistic and Literary Theories, Arts, Literature and Subjectivity, Arts and Cultural Traditions, Artistic and Literary Movements, Schools and Styles, Identity and Transnationality, Sexuality, Philosophy, History and Comparative Studies, Gender Relationship, postcolonial , anti-colonial, feminist, queer theory, psychoanalysis, subjectivity, comparative literature: Arabic, English, French
Alden, Lynn Department of Psychology Cognitive processes in the anxiety disorders, Social Anxiety Disorder, adult-onset Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, cognitive-behavior therapy
Alvarez-Moreno, Raul Department of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies Literary or Artistic Works Analysis, Artistic and Literary Movements, Schools and Styles, Artistic and Literary Theories, Literary or Artistic Work Dissemination or Reception Contexts, Language, Knowledge, Significance and Thought Building, Medieval and Early Modern Iberian Literature and Culture (Celestina, picaresque novel, short story), Economy and Medieval Literature and Culture , Visual Culture in Medieval and Early Modern Spain, Relations between Language and Ideology, Travel Writing
Anderson, Kristin Siwan Vancouver School of Economics Micro-level institutions, role of gender, studies of rural governments
Anderson, Scott Allen Department of Philosophy intersection of ethics and social and political philosophy, largely focused on how to use and regulate power, coercion, and social norms; action theory and moral psychology, privacy, and problems related to the intensification of technology and information.
Anderson, Leonard School of Music Piano, Piano Pedagogy
Anger, Suzy Department of English Victorian Literature, Literature and Philosophy, Victorian Literature and Psychology, Victorian Literature and Science, Hermeneutics
Antwi, Phanuel Department of English critical black studies; settler colonial studies; black Atlantic and diaspora studies; Canadian literature and culture since 1830; critical race, gender, and sexuality studies; and material cultures;
Arneil, Barbara Department of Political Science Identity politics, history of political thought
Arnovick, Leslie Katherine Department of English Oral tradition, business and technical writing, history and structure of the English language, linguistics
Averill, Gage Haitian music, barbershop harmony, sound, music and power, music and politics, Caribbean music, steelband, ethnomusicology, world music, Ethnomusicology, Haiti, Haitian diaspora, American Popular Culture, Trinidad and Tobago, and Traditional Irish Music
Aydede, Murat Department of Philosophy Philosophy of mind
Babel, Molly Department of Linguistics Phonetics, Recognition of Speech, Perception and Representation, Acoustics, Dialects, speech perception, acoustics of speech production, spoken word recognition, phonetic variation
Bablitz, Leanne Department of Classical, Near Eastern & Religious Studies Roman history, Roman law, Roman courtrooms, , Roman social history and law, Roman topography, Roman legal procedure
Badir, Patricia Department of English Medieval and reformation dramatic entertainment
Baier, Gerald Department of Political Science Canadian politics, federalism, constitutional law, courts, federal-provincial relations, Constitution, federalism and public law in Canada
Bailey, C. D. Alison Department of Asian Studies
Baines, Erin School of Public Policy and Global Affairs transitional justice; the politics of humanitarianism and forced displacement; and, the study of gender and armed conflict, with a regional focus on northern Uganda
Baker, Donald Leslie Department of Asian Studies Cultural and religious history of Korea
Bakker, Karen Jessica Department of Geography Political economy, political ecology, environmental studies, development studies, and resource and environmental management
Ballarin, Roberta Department of Philosophy Philosophical logic, nature and sources of necessity

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Recent Thesis Submissions

 

This is the world’s happiest country in 2019

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