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 |
|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Dr. Sandstrom studied how relationships with acquaintances, or weak social ties, are associated with well-being. People are happier on days when they interact with more weak ties than they usually do. This research suggests that minimal social interactions, like the ones with your usual coffee barista, might provide a hidden source of happiness. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Gao studied the causes of cash hoarding within U.S. firms. She linked the cash rise to inventory reduction, and analyzed whether Just-in-Time inventory systems explain the rise in cash balances. She found that replacing inventory with cash can account for over half of the cash increase observed, so concerns over mounting corporate cash are exaggerated. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Kniazeva studied links between oil rents and political systems in petro-states such as Russia and Venezuela. She found that in times of prosperity, the state provides social welfare, but when oil prices drop the social contract disintegrates. Her compelling argument is that oil rent fluctuations lead to regime fluctuations in oil-rich states. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Pottie-Sherman examined the intercultural interaction in Vancouver's summer night markets. These public events illustrate the vast changes in the social geography of immigration, and the ethno-cultural diversity in Metro Vancouver in the last quarter century. This research illuminates how public market places can serve as inclusive public spaces. | Doctor of Philosophy in Geography (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Brcic examined the motivations of astronauts, soldiers, search and rescue team members, and high-altitude mountaineers. She investigated the ways in which they cope with stressors throughout their expeditions. This research helps us understand and explain the performance of small, mission-oriented teams in extreme and unusual environments. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Freeman investigated how to mathematically model and experimentally study decisions involving risks. His work focuses on how choice data can and cannot be used to test and measure behavioural models of decision-making. His work has implications for how we can understand decisions that appear irrational relative to standard economic models. | Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD) |
| 2013 | Human culture's a biological mystery no other beast has such a history mutating faster than mere genes can by knowledge shared freely, 'tween woman and man. Dr. Chudek asks how this strange cascade started our phenotypes outpacing what our genome charted. He says: reputataional exploitation's the key to beating evil teachers and setting culture free. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Fujiwara studied northeastern Japan in the nineteenth-century. He demonstrated ways in which natavist scholars located their community within a larger imperial nation. His work illustrates the complex construction of identity and multiple layers of community during a time of transition from early modernity to modernity. | Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Sinclair developed a critical methodology to understand Anishinaabeg narratives from past to present. He used principles derived from the Anishinaabeg clan system. His work suggests that Anishinaabeg creative and critical expressions are political and intellectual practices, in which culture and nationhood are defined, initiated, and sustained. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Smythe's work examined the defence policies of Canada and Australia. She highlighted a post-Cold War trend of using military forces to address non-traditional security threats, such as disaster relief. She demonstrated the significant, but often unrecognized implications this has had for the training and deployment of western military forces. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |