We seek to explore both the forms of representation of the past, and their uses: how the past is excavated (literally and metaphorically) and expressed in relation to contemporary practices and concerns.
How we understand and engage with the past is the result of constant negotiation with the present. Questions about identity, both personal and communitarian, are rooted in both shared and contested memories of, and narratives about, the past. Questions about reconciliation hinge on understanding and acknowledging historical wrongs, their nature and their scope, and their implications in the present. Questions about rights and redistribution relate to past entitlements—or their denial. And the past itself - that "foreign country," in the words of David Lowenthal - lies both beyond and within the questions of the present.
Campus
Vancouver
Affiliated UBC Faculty & Postdocs
| Name | Role | Research Interests |
|---|---|---|
| Blackburn, Carole | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | relationship between Indigenous peoples and settler states; how Indigenous nations assert their rights and sovereignty in struggles over land and political recognition, and the consequences for Indigenous people of engaging states in legal and political arenas. |
| Cheek, Timothy | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | 20th century Chinese history, the history of the Chinese communist party, the role of intellectuals in public life in China |
| Dixon, Joy | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | History of gender, sexuality, and the body, history of religion, history of the social and human sciences, history of empire |
| Drljaca, Igor | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Creative writing; Film, television and digital media; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Documentary FIlm; Film Production; Narrative Film; Screenwriting; Virtual Reality; Video and New Media |
| Fisher, Kevin | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | 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 |
| Glassheim, Eagle | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | European history (except British, classical Greek and Roman); History of Central and Eastern Europe; Environmental History |
| Levell, Nicola | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | interdisciplinary folds of anthropology, theoretical museology, material culture and critical curatorial studies |
| Marshall, Toph | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Cinema studies; Classical Greek and Ancient Rome history; Classical archaeology; Classical linguistics; Film, television and digital media; Religion and religious studies; Literary or Artistic Works Analysis; Performance and Theatrical Productions |
| Mawani, Renisa | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Sociology; Colonial Legal History; critical theory; Oceans and Maritime Worlds; Philosophy, History and Comparative Studies; Race and Racism; Time and Temporality |
| Murphy, Anne | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Historical studies; Arts and Cultural Traditions; Religion; Early Modern Studies; Modern history; cultural history; Philosophy, History and Comparative Studies; Punjabi Studies; South Asian Studies |
| Rea, Christopher | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Chinese literatures; Asian history; Chinese literature; Cinema; Print culture; translation; Humor |
| Shin, Leo | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Later imperial China |
| Wylie, Alison | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | 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 |
| Wytenbroek, Lydia | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | History of medicine and health care; Nursing; Nursing/Health History; Gender/Women's History; Social justice; Science and Technology |
| Yi, Christina | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Asian history; Cultural Studies; genre; Japanese colonial repatriates; Language politics; Linguistic nationalism; Modern/Contemporary Japanese literature; National identity; Postcoloniality; Resident Koreans; “Repatriation literature” (hikiage bungaku); “returned” Nikkei |
| Yu, Henry | Faculty (G+PS eligible/member) | Asian migration to Canada, Chinese Canadian, Asian Canadian, Chinese in British Columbia, multiculturalism, racism, Asian American history, sports and race, Chinatown, Head Tax, United States, Global Vancouver, Trans-Pacific migration, American intellectual history, Asian Canadian and Asian American history, race and immigration, social science and social theory in US and Europe |