Research in Arts
UBC is renowned for its research, which includes studies undertaken by Arts professors and students.
UBC's Arts faculty is consistently ranked second in Canada as a recipient of funds from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Other major funding comes from the National Science and Engineering Research Council and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. In the 2004/05 academic year, Arts scholars garnered roughly $20 million in research funding.
Currently, more than a dozen Arts professors at UBC hold Canada Research Chairs, positions awarded by the Canadian government to foster groundbreaking research and enrich the nation’s social and cultural life.
Among them is Professor Michael Byers, an expert on global politics and international law who has published on issues ranging from the trial of Saddam Hussein to nuclear non-proliferation. Canada Research Chair and Psychology Professor Janet Werker conducts research on infant language learning.
Get Involved in Research
- Arts Undergraduate Research Award (AURA)
AURA provides funding support to professors to hire undergraduate research assistants.
- Research-intensive courses
UBC Arts courses that fulfill the research requirement of a degree
- Honours specialization
Students in an Honours specialization complete an undergraduate thesis under the supervision of a faculty member
- Arts Co-op Program
Look for a paid research opportunity through the Arts Co-op Program
- Community-Based Experiential Learning
Students apply their knowledge toward the resolution of complex community-based challenges
- Departmental conferences
Annual conferences that showcase research in a particular department
eg. Psychology Undergraduate Research Conference, Geography Spring Research Symposium
- MURC (Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Conference)
Undergraduate students showcase their research at a large-scale conference
Examples of Research Writing by Arts Undergraduates
The following research papers were submitted for the 2010/2011 Russ Patrick Arts Undergraduate Student Research Award. They illustrate the breadth of Arts research in which students are involved, and are all strong examples of research writing in their respective disciplines.
Ashley Whillans - 2010/11 Winner. "From Doing Good to Feeling Good: The Health Benefits of Prosocial Behavior" Supervisor: Dr. Elizabeth Dunn, Department of Psychology
Roydon Tse - 2010/11 Runner-Up. "Arranging and Orchestrating Music for Bassoon"
Supervisor: Dr. Jesse Read, UBC School of Music
Amanda Cheong - "Russian Human Rights Activists and the European Court of Human Rights"
Supervisor: Dr. Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom, Department of Political Science
Wladimiro A. Woyno R. (wawr.ca) - "Applying Digital Video Illumination to Art Song Theatre"
Supervisor: Tom Scholte, Department of Theatre and Film
Bethany Nickel - "The Image of the Jew as Ragpicker in Seventeenth Century French Imaginary"
Supervisor: Sima Godfrey, Department of French, Hispanic and Italian Studies
