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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
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Van Handel, Leigh | School of Music | |
| Veenstra, Gerry | Department of Sociology | Sociology and social studies of health, health systems and health care; Health equity; Sociology, n.e.c.; social determinants of health; Socioeconomic status and health; racial health inequalities; Bourdieusian field theory, lifestyle practices and health; culture and class; Quantitative Methods; Sociology of soccer |
| Vellutini, Claudio | School of Music | Music; Critical Musicology; Cultural and reception history of nineteenth-century Italian opera; Early 19th century music (opera); Habsburg cultural policies; Historiography; Italian opera in the Habsburg Empire; Performance and staging practices; Vienna opera (first half of 19th century) |
| Vessey, Mark | Department of English Language and Literatures | classical/Christian literary culture in late antiquity; European Renaissance; church fathers (i.e. Augustine, Jerome); Erasmus; bible and book history, Biblical and classical traditions, very early Latin middle ages, intellectual history, 16th century English literature, history of books |
| Victoriano, Ramon Antonio | Department of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies | Caribbean literatures; Latin American literatures; Contemporary literatures; Hispanic Caribbean Literatures and Cultures; Latin American Contemporary Novel and Short Story; Caribbean Literatures |
| Wagner, Katherine | Vancouver School of Economics | Economics; Environmental and Energy Economics; Public Finance |
| Walsh, Shannon | Department of Theatre & Film | Media arts; Critical identity, ethnic and race studies; Social and cultural anthropology; South Africa; Afropessimism & Critical Race Studies; Documentary; Film Production; Indigenous studies; Environmental justice; Affect Theory |
| Wang, Jessica | Department of Geography | US history, 19th and 20th centuries, history of science and medicine, political and intellectual history, social and urban history, US international history |
| Weaver, Michael | Department of Political Science | Politics of violence; Ethnic politics and media; Causes and consequences of ethnic violence; Lynching; Legitimacy of state and non-state violence |
| Webster, Crystal | Department of History | African American history, History of early America, African American women & children, Criminalization & incarceration |
| Werker, Janet | Department of Psychology | Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Psychology and cognitive sciences; Bilingualism and Multilingualism; Critical Periods; Language Acquisition; Language Acquisition and Development; Language and Cognitive Processes; Multisensory Processing; Plasticity; Psycholinguistics; Psychology - Biological Aspects; speech perception; Speech and Language Development Disorders |
| Weston, Darlene | Department of Anthropology | Anthropology; Archeological Data Analysis; Bioarchaeology; Biological Anthropology; Osteoarchaeology; Paleodemography; Paleopathology |
| Whitney, Valerie | School of Music | Music; French Horn |
| Wilkes, Rima | Department of Sociology | protest, media and First Nations, media and racism, immigration, Collective Action by Indigenous Nations, Media and social movements, Public Opinion, Immigration, Trust |
| Williams, Jennifer | Department of Geography | Population ecology; Evolutionary ecology; Ecological mathematical and statistical models; Population Ecology; Ecological and evolutionary processes |
| Wilson, Tina | School of Social Work | Social work; social work and environment; history and philosophy of social work; critical social theories; generational standpoints; Social justice; social work rhetoric |
| Winstanley, Catharine | Department of Psychology | Neurosciences, biological and chemical aspects; Neurosciences, medical and physiological and health aspects; Psychology and cognitive sciences; Addiction; Behavioural neuroscience; decision making; Gambling disorder; Impulsivity; Mental Health and Society; Neuronal Systems; Neuropharmacology; Computational neuroscience; Traumatic Brain Injury |
| Winthrop-Young, Geoffrey | Department of Central, Eastern & Northern European Studies | German theories of media and cultural techniques, Complexity, biological evolution and animal studies, Secret societies and conspiracy theories, Science Fiction (special focus on Alternate history) |
| Wong, Danielle | Department of English Language and Literatures | Asian American studies; Asian migration studies; Historical and contemporary relationships between race, Empire, and new technologies; Asian North American new media productions and performances |
| Wood, Jasper | School of Music | Violin, chamber music |
| Woody, Sheila | Department of Psychology | Psychology and cognitive sciences; Mental Health and Society; Anxiety; cognition; Community Health / Public Health; Specific Social Services (Clientele); Hoarding |
| Wright, Matthew | Department of Political Science | Political science; American politics; Comparitive politics; immigration; Immigration Policy; migration; National identity; Political behaviour; Political psychology; public opinion |
| Wu, Helena | Department of Asian Studies | Critical identity, ethnic and race studies; Media, visual and digital culture; Critical film studies; Theories of cultural studies; Globalization and culture; Other cultural studies, n.e.c.; Hong Kong cinema, literature and culture; Asian screen cultures; Media narratives; Creative industry and spectatorship; Identity and cultural flows; critical theory; postcolonialism; Thing theory |
| Wylie, Alison | Department of Philosophy | Philosophy; feminist philosophy; philosophy of archaeology; philosophy of science; philosophy of the social and historial sciences; Philosophy, History and Comparative Studies; research ethics (non-medical); science studies |
| Wyly, Elvin | Department of Geography | Social and economic geography; Urban Spaces and Urbanity; Specialized Services (Housing, Transportation); gentrification; housing; the politics of data and quantitative methods; U.S. politics |
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Graduate Student Stories
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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.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | Dr. Dinat explored the ways in which the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission continues to shape the political and literary discourses of the contemporary nation. His work contributes to ongoing conversations around the relationship between the state, the subject, and literature in the post-apartheid era. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Feltes studied the Constitution Express, a 1980s Indigenous movement to stop the patriation of Canada's Constitution from the UK without Indigenous consent. Guided by its leaders, she found that beyond rights, the movement sought international decolonization. This study challenges Canadian federalism, recentering Indigenous jurisdiction. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Mushiya has examined the social and economic impacts of new technology on African societies. She has demonstrated that globalization is an extension of imperialism engrained in the predation of minerals used in technology. Her research provides insight into the role of industry and legislators in the chronic poverty of African societies. | Doctor of Philosophy in French (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. James's research focused on gender and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. She found that at the particular intersection of colonialism and patriarchy lie challenges that must be overcome if we are to move towards truly transformative reconciliation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Macdonald's research shows the importance of parole incentives in the prison system. He finds that their absence led to greater misconduct and lower rehabilitative effort by prisoners who returned to prison at higher rates as a result. His findings contribute vital evidence relevant to current efforts to reform and reduce prison populations. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2022 | Dr. Pestonji examined how the experience of repeatedly seeing a person or hearing a song affects how much we like them/it. Her research gives insight into the cognitive processes that underlie how we make liking and similar holistic preference decisions. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2021 | In our changing climate, floods and landslides are likely to be more frequent in mountainous regions. Dr. Leenman studied how such changes could influence the steep streams on alluvial fans, which are depositional landforms in these areas. Her work shows how the frequency and magnitude of natural hazards on fans may respond to climate change. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Yu examined what people would predict when jointly seeing two predictive cues. He found that people made conjunctive predictions that represented the overlap of the outcomes predicted by the cues. The results contribute to the understanding of human predictions and are helpful to those who design signage and labelling for the general public. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Franzen's dissertation added to our conceptual understanding of systemic violence. Asking how Nazi Germany's juridical genocide practically and paradoxically worked, her research showed how aspects of a subjectively civilized and heroic norm/self-education, systemic embraces of subversive acts and some prisoner's survival identity formed part of its functioning. | Doctor of Philosophy in Germanic Studies (PhD) |
| 2021 | Dr. Rivard examined both how separatist political parties emerge and what makes them successful. He demonstrated that these parties have become increasingly successful in the contemporary era and pose a considerable problem for the management of state affairs. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |