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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
Ferreira da Silva, Denise Institute for Gender, Race, Sex and Social Justice ethical questions of the global present and target the metaphysical and ontoepistemological dimensions of modern thought; Critical Racial and Ethnic Studies, Feminist Theory, Critical Legal Theory, Political Theory, Moral Philosophy, Postcolonial Studies, and Latin American & Caribbean Studies
Firkins, Jacqueline Department of Theatre & Film costume design
Fisher, Kevin Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies Prehistoric archaeology; Anthropology; Archaeological theory; Archaeometry; Archeological Data Analysis; Archeological Excavation Methods and Techniques; architecture; built environments; digital archaeology; Dynamics of Social Transformations; Mediterranean archaeology; Near Eastern archaeology; power; Social Life / Societal Life; social interaction; Urban Spaces and Urbanity; urbanism
Fisher, Alexander School of Music Music, n.e.c.; musicology; music; Sound Studies; History; religious history
Floresco, Stanley Bogdan Department of Psychology Neural circuits subserving learning and executive functions, behavioural and electrophysiological analyses of limbic-cortical-striatal interactions involved in decision making and behavioural flexibility, animal models of schizophrenia and drug addiction
Fortin, Nicole Vancouver School of Economics Wage inequality and its links to labour market institutions and public policies, including higher education policies economic progress of women, gender equality policies, and gender issues in education
Frackman, Kyle Department of Central, Eastern & Northern European Studies Cinema studies; Media studies (except social media and digital media); Literature and literary studies; Cultural studies; queer studies; German studies; media studies; history of sexuality; sexuality; sexuality studies; East Germany; film; Gender Studies; history of science; literature; Media; Media Types (Radio, Television, Written Press, etc.); Scandinavia
Franch Ballester, Jose School of Music Spanish clarinetist
Francois, Patrick Vancouver School of Economics African Autocracies, Economics of Developing Countries, Indian Village Governance, Macro, development, problems in development economies, political economy and non profits
Frandy, Tim Department of Central, Eastern & Northern European Studies traditional culture, decolonization, environments, education, and cultural revitalization
Frank, Adam Department of English Language and Literatures American literatures; American literature and media, affect theory, modernism, science and technology studies
Frelick, Nancy Department of English Language and Literatures, Department of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies Renaissance literatures; Literature and critical theory
Fu, Qiang Department of Sociology a multidisciplinary perspective on institutional changes, social networks and mental health over the urban space; comparative and temporal analysis of civic engagement and identity; child and youth well-being (e.g., obesity and school bullying); developing
Fuller, Sylvia Department of Sociology precarious employment; inequality; work; gender and work; immigration, Work and Labour, Inequality, Gender, Economic Sociology, Social Policy, Welfare state restructuring
Fulton, Bruce Department of Asian Studies Literary translation, Modern Korean fiction, women
Fung, David School of Music
Gaertner, David Institute for Critical Indigenous Studies Indigenous literatures; Media, visual and digital culture; Critical identity, ethnic and race studies; Indigenous Literature; Digital storytelling; Digital Humanities; Speculative fiction; Reconciliation; New Media; Indigenous Cyberspace
Gagnon, Olivia Michiko Department of Theatre & Film Performance studies; minoritarian performance and cultural production; Multimedia art-making; critical race and ethnic studies; feminist and queer theory; critical Indigenous studies; Archival Theory; performative writing
Gallipoli, Giovanni Vancouver School of Economics Macroeconomics (including monetary and fiscal theory); Economic Policies; Economic Phenomena on a National or International Level; Economic Phenomena on an Individual or Organizational Level; applied microeconomics; computational economics; labor economics; macroeconomics; Consumption theory and measurement
Gardner, Gregg Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies Judaism, Rabbinic Literature, Rabbinic Judaism, Mishnah, Talmud, Jewish Studies, Jewish Law, Jewish Ethics, Charity, Jewish Ethics, Archaeology of Israel, Archaeology and Hebrew Bible, Archaeology of Jerusalemn
Gelinas-Lemaire, Vincent Department of French, Hispanic & Italian Studies French language; Arts, Literature and Subjectivity; Comparative Literature; Creative Writing; French Literature (1945 to the present); Québec and French-Canadian Literature and Culture; Spatial Poetics; Visual Culture
Georgopulos, Nicole Department of Art History, Visual Art & Theory Art history and theory; French art; nineteenth-century art and visual culture; art and science; gender and early feminism
Ghaziani, Amin Department of Sociology Sociology; Sexualities / LGBTQ studies / Queer studies; Urban sociology; culture / cultural sociology; nightlife
Gick, Bryan Department of Linguistics phonetics, speech science, speech motor control, speech perception, multimodal perception, tactile perception, ultrasound imaging of speech, sounds of the world’s languages, Physical mechanisms of speech production, speech research
Gillham, David School of Music violin

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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

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. Press examined the role of persuasion in medical settings and scientific writing. She showed how a patient's positionality can impact how that person is treated in medical encounters, and how discrimination can lead to differential health outcomes. Her research shows the value of applying narrative and rhetorical approaches to health studies. Doctor of Philosophy in English (PhD)
2023 Dr. Zhumatova developed a policy index that measures the scope of mainstreaming, a policy of immigrant integration, across European states. She used the index and other data to examine if mainstreaming helps immigrants find employment. Her research contributes to a better understanding of whether immigrant integration policies work. Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD)
2023 Dr. Huijsmans investigated a set of small words with grammatical functions in ?ay?aj u¸Ym (Comox-Sliammon; Central Salish). These encode information about utterance type, source of evidence, speaker certainty, and broader discourse context. This research contributes to documentation available to future language learners, teachers, and researchers. Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Mukherji shows how the entry of immigrants in the local labour markets can impact market institutions like unions. He also examines how economic conditions both in their source economy and in the market of entry can affect their labour supply decisions. Doctor of Philosophy in Economics (PhD)
2023 Foreign investment can benefit the recipient economy. Dr. Burzo examined empirically the political and economic aspects that influence the destination of foreign investments. His findings contribute to policy discussions on the redefinition of the international investment regime, particularly in relation to developing countries. Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD)
2023 Dr. Angsongna's work explored the word structure and the sound system of Dagaare, a language spoken in northwestern Ghana. His research showed how words are formed and how they differ in the expression of grammatical meanings. This research contributes to the documentation of the language and to the development of linguistic theory. Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics (PhD)
2023 Dr. Shankar explored practices with immigration data in Canada. Findings emphasize difference, interdependence, and the need for negotiation of responsibilities across groups working with immigration data. Her work offers implications to governmental and non-governmental actors for ethical decision making and the use of communities' data with care. Doctor of Philosophy in Library, Archival and Information Studies (PhD)
2023 Dr. Zhang studies online gamblers' betting behavior, examining how prior wins/losses affect ones' future betting. She identifies high-risk gamblers based on their behavior and develops interventions to reduce bets, improving prevention and intervention for gambling disorder Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
2023 Dr. Bercovici examined how neural activity in the prefrontal cortex supports behavioural flexibility. She showed that prefrontal neurons convey distinctive information for guiding choices during different phases of the decision-action sequence. Her research reveals how neural activity in this region shapes animals' perception of the decision context. Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology (PhD)
2023 Dr. Desmarès studies patterns of discrimination in key citizenship policies adopted after World War II in France and Switzerland. She finds that new policies (re)introduced discriminatory provisions based on gender, race, ability status, and one's mode of nationality acquisition. Her work highlights the limits and drifts of liberal citizenship. Doctor of Philosophy in Political Science (PhD)

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