Research Excellence

UBC Arts 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.

Our strategies

Goal: Strengthen our position as Canada’s leading social science research university and build on the strong foundation of our research in the humanities and creative and performing arts.

  • Follow the CAN strategy: celebrate achievements; apply for grants; nominate faculty for awards.
  • Provide better coordination for the nomination of faculty research awards and prizes and enhance recognition of research and award success.
  • Increase the number and quality of grant applications through enhanced administrative support.
  • Improve tracking of research successes and publications. Create capacity to provide analytics on publications, awards, and citations.
  • Host Congress 2019 to promote the strengths of UBC Arts research.
  • Provide Dean of Arts Research Awards (semester buy-outs) for research projects.
  • Support faculty in competing for a Canada-150 Chair, Presidents’ Excellence Chairs, and new Canada Research Chairs, and use anticipated Canada Research Chair vacancies to advance our research priorities.
  • Improve support for our centres and our named and funded chairships and professorships.

Goal: Invest in and support collaborative research practices across the Faculty of Arts, the university, and with local and global partners.

  • Encourage our faculty members to form and strengthen research networks, collaborations, and clusters for support under UBC’s Excellence Fund and the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies (PWIAS).
  • Inaugurate a Public Humanities Hub for external-facing humanities research and seek parallel support to the UBC research cluster program for humanities researchers.
  • Develop mechanisms to support centres and institutes, virtual and otherwise, that further Arts collaborations and support departments, schools, and institutes that have interdisciplinary connections within their units.
  • Increase collaboration with the Centre for Digital Media at the Great Northern Way campus and explore additional joint hires.
  • Further cross-campus collaborations on “wicked” issues and build connections between major lectures offered in Arts, for example, the Lind Initiative, the Dean of Arts Lecture, and series’ associated with centres, with those sponsored by the PWIAS, Green College, and UBC Connects.

Goal: Create and mobilize knowledge exchange beyond the academy.

  • Encourage greater participation in innovation initiatives both within and external to the university, including e@UBC and the UBC Knowledge Exchange. Enhance feedback loops to public and private sector employers.
  • Grow the UBC School of Public Policy and Global Affairs (SPPGA), its integration with other faculties at UBC, and its impact on global policy.
  • Seek funding to expand the Institute for Future Legislators into a national network.
  • Support the development of Arts-based scholarly journals.
  • Use the Dean of Arts Lectures to reinforce grassroots interdisciplinary research initiatives from the faculty.
  • Continue to encourage, celebrate, and showcase the impact of our public scholarship through communications and storytelling.

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