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. Johnston's work lies at the intersection between morality and beauty. He developed a theory of judgment that is sensitive to both, thus unifying, in part, ethics and aesthetics. This theory relies on the agent's skill of carefully getting to know the item up for judgment. His theory will have impact in ethics, aesthetics, and art education | Doctor of Philosophy in Philosophy (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Deng studied the life and literature of a sixth-century Chinese poet named Xiao Gang. Her research challenges the traditional criticism of Xiao and his Palace Style poetry and contributes to a long-needed reinterpretation of Chinese literature during the Period of Division. | Doctor of Philosophy in Asian Studies (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Neville explored debates over biofuels during fieldwork in eastern Africa. She found these fuels were only the latest flashpoint in a long history of conflicts between communities, governments, and corporations. She established a framework to explain cycles of control and resistance over these and other controversial global commodity markets. | Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Duff 's study focussed on British literature and culture at the time Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister. She uncovered issues related to British public and private urban space, national identity and emergent forms of historical identities and citizenship. | Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Ames studied the Talmud Yerushalmi, demonstrating that it was carefully constructed and deliberately edited. Contrary to traditional claims that the Talmud Yerushalmi was improperly and hastily compiled, Dr. Ames concluded that biblical and rabbinic traditions were subjected to an interventionist editorial process, with novel creative input. | Doctor of Philosophy in Religious Studies (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Brosseau-Liard explored children's use of cues to people's knowledge. Young children prefer to learn from people who seem knowledgeable, for example people who previously provided correct information. However, children's trust in people who seem less knowledgeable varies across situations. This work furthers our understanding of early learning. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Ove studied child sponsorship programs, the advertising they produce, and sponsors they attract. His project examined ways in which sponsorship programs and sponsors represent themselves as trying to make a difference in the world, and how these representations relate to contemporary understandings of poverty and development. | Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Chang assessed a group of similar paintings produced in 16th-to-18th century China. She proved that they visualize many upper- and middle-class people's changing and diverse views of an ideal society. Her study establishes the art-historical value of the paintings, and argues for copying as a form of improvised new creation rather than mere imitation. | Doctor of Philosophy in Art History (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Begum explored the health seeking practices of women with reproductive complications in rural Bangladesh. This research will help health policy-makers and public health officials to understand women's reproductive complications, and the ways women manage those complications, in order to adopt gender sensitive healthcare policies and action plans. | Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology (PhD) |
| 2013 | Dr. Carey developed a new personality variable and measure called "Need for Mystery" which describes individual differences in spiritual beliefs. This measure predicts different patterns of religious and non-religious spiritual belief as well as conversion experiences. It will be useful in many areas of psychological research dealing with religion. | Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD) |