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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 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.

Graduate Degree Programs

Research Supervisors in Faculty

or browse the list of faculty members in various academic units. You may click each unit to view faculty members appointed in that unit. View the full faculty member directory for more search and filter options.
Name Academic Unit(s) Research Interests
Baada, Jemima Department of Geography intersections of gender, climate change, migration, health and development equity
Babel, Molly Department of Linguistics Linguistics; Phonetics; Recognition of Speech; Perception and Representation; Acoustics; Dialects; acoustics of speech production; phonetic variation; speech perception; spoken word recognition
Bablitz, Leanne Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies Roman history, Roman law, Roman courtrooms, , Roman social history and law, Roman topography, Roman legal procedure
Badir, Patricia Department of English Language and Literatures English language; Canadian Modernism; Early Modern Drama; Early Modern Literature and Religion; Medieval Drama; Shakespeare; Shakespeare in Canada
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 pre-modern literature; fiction and literary criticism
Bain, Kimberly Department of English Language and Literatures History, theory, and philosophy of the African diaspora; Race, gender, environmental and medical racism; Anthropocene; Black arts and letters
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
Baines, Donna School of Social Work Social work; Age-Friendly Cities; decent work and good care for older people in residential and home care; impact of neoliberalism on Indigenous social work education; impact of neoliberalism on non-Indigenous social work education
Baker, Donald Leslie Department of Asian Studies Humanities and the arts; Korean History; Confucian Philosophy; Religion in Korea; science in pre-modern Korea; Kwangju Uprising of 1980
Ballarin, Roberta Department of Philosophy Philosophical logic, nature and sources of necessity
Barnes, Trevor Department of Geography Vancouver
Barnett, Kristen Department of Anthropology intersection of Indigenous and western science; research and data sovereignty; Indigenous feminisms; decolonizing; reframing archaeology
Baron, Andrew Department of Psychology cognitive development, infancy, childhood, adolescence, racism, race, stereotypes, cooperation, bias, innateness, science education, multiculturalism, gender, ethnicity, neuromarketing, attitudes, preferences, psychology
Bartha, Paul Department of Philosophy Philosophy of sciences and technologies; Environmental philosophy; philosophy of science; Philosophy of Probability; Confirmation; Decision Theory
Baum, Bruce Department of Political Science Political Culture, Society and Ideology; critical social theory; feminist theory; critical hermeneutics; issues of cross-cultural interpretation; American political thought and cultural politics; political theories of Mill and Marx; philosophy of political inquiry; liberal and democratic theory
Baylis, Patrick Vancouver School of Economics Economics; Climate Changes and Impacts; Economic Planning of Energy; climate change economics; energy economics; environmental economics
Beasley-Murray, Jon Department of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies Latin American studies, social and political theory
Beatty, John Henry Department of Philosophy Socio-political dimensions of genetics and evolutionary biology
Beauchesne, Kim Department of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies Colonialism; Latin America; Trans-Pacific Studies; Globalization
Beaudry, Paul Vancouver School of Economics National and International macroeconomic issues, Business cycles, inflation, financial markets, the macro-economic effects of technological change and globalization, and the determinants of aggregate employment and wages
Bedke, Matthew Department of Philosophy Philosophy; Philosophy, History and Comparative Studies; Foundations of Ethics; Social Organization and Political Systems; Ethics and Fundamental Issues of Law and Justice; epistemology; ethics; metaethics; philosophy of law; political philosophy
Belcourt, Billy-Ray School of Creative Writing Fiction; Nonfiction; Poetry
Berdahl, Jennifer Department of Sociology Ostracism, Harassment and Bullying, Gender and Diversity in Organizations, Power and Status in Groups, Harassment, Work-Family Interface
Bergmann, Luke Department of Geography Social and economic geography; Geomatics; Globalization

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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.

 

Publication: Psychopharmacology
UBC Author(s): Catharine Winstanley (Psychology / Faculty of Arts), Stanley Bogdan Floresco (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 00333158
Volume: 241
Page Range: 767-783
Publication Date: April 2024

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Publication: Journal of Personality
UBC Author(s): Jessica Tracy (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 00223506
Volume: 92
Page Range: 565-583
Publication Date: April 2024

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Publication: Canadian Journal of Political Science
UBC Author(s): Xiaojun Li (Political Science / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 00084239
Volume: 57
Page Range: 21-42
Publication Date: 18 March 2024

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Publication: iScience
Volume: 27
Publication Date: 15 March 2024

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Publication: Neuropharmacology
UBC Author(s): Stanley Bogdan Floresco (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 00283908
Volume: 246
Publication Date: 15 March 2024

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Publication: Behavioural Brain Research
UBC Author(s): Catharine Winstanley (Psychology / Faculty of Arts), Luke Clark (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 01664328
Volume: 461
Publication Date: 12 March 2024

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Publication: Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences
UBC Author(s): Nathan Nunn (Economics / Faculty of Arts)
Volume: 379
Page Range: 20230032
Publication Date: 11 March 2024

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Publication: Language and Dialogue
UBC Author(s): Tom Scholte (Theatre and Film / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 22104119
Volume: 14
Page Range: 33-59
Publication Date: 8 March 2024

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Publication: Multitudes
UBC Author(s): Jasbir Puar (Institute for Gender, Race, Sex and Social Justice / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 02920107
Volume: 94
Page Range: 103-108
Publication Date: 6 March 2024

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Publication: Journal of experimental psychology. General
UBC Author(s): Lauren Emberson (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
Volume: 153
Page Range: 798-813
Publication Date: 1 March 2024

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Publication: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology
UBC Author(s): Kristin Laurin (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 00221031
Volume: 111
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Behavior Research Methods
UBC Author(s): Friedrich Goetz (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 1554351X
Volume: 56
Page Range: 1863-1899
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Emotion (Washington, D.C.)
UBC Author(s): Christiane Hoppmann (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
Volume: 24
Page Range: 316-328
Publication Date: 1 March 2024

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Publication: Developmental Science
UBC Author(s): Darko Odic (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 1363755X
Volume: 27
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Environmental Research: Infrastructure and Sustainability
UBC Author(s): Milind Kandlikar (School of Public Policy / Faculty of Arts)
Volume: 4
Publication Date: 1 March 2024

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Publication: Social Science and Medicine
UBC Author(s): Aryan Karimi (Sociology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 02779536
Volume: 345
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Journal of Space Safety Engineering
UBC Author(s): Michael Byers (Political Science / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 24688975
Volume: 11
Page Range: 74-79
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Sociological Theory
UBC Author(s): Seth Abrutyn (Sociology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 07352751
Volume: 42
Page Range: 73-96
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Journal of Clinical Psychology
UBC Author(s): Christiana Bratiotis (Social Work / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 00219762
Volume: 80
Page Range: 610-624
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Social Science and Medicine
UBC Author(s): Avery Everhart (Geography / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 02779536
Volume: 345
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Review of Economic Studies
UBC Author(s): Victor Couture (Economics / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 00346527
Volume: 91
Page Range: 858-898
Publication Date: 1 March 2024

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Publication: Autism
UBC Author(s): Connor Kerns (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 13623613
Volume: 28
Page Range: 540-564
Publication Date: March 2024

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Publication: Psychological bulletin
UBC Author(s): Azim Shariff (Psychology / Faculty of Arts)
Volume: 150
Page Range: 284-318
Publication Date: 1 March 2024

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Publication: American Historical Review
UBC Author(s): Heidi Evans (History / Faculty of Arts)
ISSN: 00028762
Volume: 129
Page Range: 143-147
Publication Date: 1 March 2024

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Publication: SSM - Population Health
UBC Author(s): Gerry Veenstra (Sociology / Faculty of Arts)
Volume: 25
Publication Date: March 2024

View Publication

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Recent Thesis Submissions

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
2023 Dr. Vega Acuna studied, using a field experiment, how leadership roles can improve the academic performance and social integration of low-income students at a top university in Peru. He also shows how low-income students, during the Covid-19 online classes period, faced more difficulties to score higher grades than other students. Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD)
2023 Nikolai Medtner was a Russian composer whose large contribution to the art song genre has gone mostly unnoticed. Dr. Stanyer looks at how Medtner set complex Russian and German poetry to music, and how he communicated text and meaning through music. This research will be beneficial to future performers of these wonderful art songs to aid in interpretation. Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano (DMA)
2023 Dr. Takano explored how massive population movements around the turn of the fifteenth century influenced Chinese literature by analyzing the writings of Li Dongyang (1447-1516). He found that Li expressed a conflicted geographic identity as a descendant of migrants sandwiched between his ancestral hometown and his place of residence in Beijing. Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD)
2023 Dr. Jewell's research took place in Florida (2019-2020). They argue that everyday experiences of the climate crisis are tied up within cultures of denial and control that have historically served a white supremacist status quo. Responsibly mitigating climate impacts requires reckoning with this, lest they become part of a "new," horrific normal. Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD)
2023 Dr. van der List studies how the economy interacts with geographic space. She has shown that firms trade off labor-market power and productivity spillovers when choosing a location. Her research has implications for the design of government subsidies affecting specific locations. Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Li explored the dynamics of ocean extreme temperature events, Marine Heatwaves, and their ecological impacts. Her work improves our understanding of the historical and future changes in multiple novel heat stress characteristics globally, and also demonstrates the protective impacts of "training" heat stress conditions on global coral reefs. Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD)
2023 Dr. Soo examined the perception, recognition and encoding of pronunciation variants in an ongoing Cantonese sound change. Borrowing psycholinguistic paradigms from dialect/language variation, her work offers a contemporary perceptual account of the sound change, showing that listeners distinguish and flexibly map multiple pronunciations to a word. Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Desideri reflects on a set of artistic practices which, rather than creating objects, create the conditions for collaborative thinking and making, that is called study. Her Studio Practice proposes a novel approach to artmaking as study and to study as artmaking. Doctor of Philosophy in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice (PhD)
2023 Dr. Roy examined Museum of Vancouver's reorientation to a public engagement focussed institution from 2006 to 2016. Despite resource limitations, museum staff developed new relationships with local community members and audiences. Dr. Roy reveals important insights into the challenges faced by city museums adopting participatory approaches. Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD)
2023 Dr. Markovic examined unchosen transformative experiences, particularly transformative grief, an experience that deeply alters a person's sense of what is significant in the world and calls on them to reorganize themselves as an agent. Her research links challenges to identity and agency in transformative grief with those of other major life events. Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy (PhD)

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