L-R: Dr. Silvia Bartolic, Dr. Tamara Myers, Dr. Moberley Luger
The Faculty of Arts is pleased to announce the appointment of three new Heads and Directors.
Dr. Silvia Bartolic
Interim Director, School of Social Work
Dr. Bartolic is a Professor of Teaching in the Department of Sociology where she has served as Undergraduate Chair. Her research interests include relationship dynamics, family and health. Her educational leadership has focused on program evaluation and renewal, sustainability in the family context, open education resource development and contributions to the scholarship of teaching and learning.
She is the past editor of the Journal of Comparative Family Studies and Family Science Review. She has published in the Journal of Social and Personal Relationships; Studies in Higher Education; British Journal of Educational Technology; Educational Review; and Higher Education. She received the Killam Teaching Prize in 2017 and is the 2021 recipient of the Ernest G. Osborne Award for Excellence in Teaching Family Science.
Dr. Tamara Myers
Head, Department of History (effective January 2027)
Dr. Myers is a Professor of History. Her specializations include women’s and gender history and the history of youth, delinquency, and juvenile justice. Her books include Caught: Montreal’s Modern Girls and the Law, 1869-1945 and Youth Squad: Policing Children in the 20th Century, co-edited collections include Rethinking Canada: The Promise of Women’s History and The Difference Kids Make: Bringing Children and Youth into Canadian History.
She is a deputy editor of Women’s History Review, a long-standing member of the Montreal History Group, and is past President of the Society for the History of Children and Youth. Her current project is funded by a SSHRC grant (2024-29): “The Runaways Project: Street Youth and the Transformation of Adolescence in Canada, 1960s-1990s.
Dr. Moberley Luger
Director, First-Year and Interdisciplinary Programs
Dr. Luger is an Associate Professor of Teaching in the Department of English Language and Literatures. Her research has generally focused on contemporary American poetry and its relation to crisis and memory. More recently, her scholarship has turned toward pedagogy, exploring methods for incorporating cultural studies of poetry into the classroom. She is also working on several initiatives to promote equity in scholarly communication at UBC, including the development of her TLEF-funded online teaching resource, the PASS (Precedents Archive for Scholarly Speaking).
Her articles have appeared in English Studies in Canada, Memory Studies, Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature, Pedagogy, Contemporary Literature, Discourse and Writing/Rédactologie, College English, and the Canadian Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. She is a recipient of a 2023 Killam Teaching Prize.
Dean’s Welcome Reception
On Tuesday, September 22, the Faculty of Arts Dean’s Office hosted a Welcome Reception to mark the beginning of the 2026–27 academic year. The reception brought together members of the Arts community, including new and returning Heads and Directors, as well as new and newly promoted faculty. Dean Clare Haru Crowston welcomed attendees and celebrated the contributions of colleagues across the Faculty.
L-R: Dean Clare Haru Crowston, Dr. Moberley Luger (Director, First Year and Interdisciplinary Programs ), Dr. Silvia Bartolic (Interim Director, School of Social Work), Tania Willard (Director/Curator, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery), Dr. Luanne Sinnamon (Returning Director, School of Information), and Dr. Allison Macfarlane (Returning Director, School of Public Policy and Global Affairs). Not pictured: Dr. Tamara Myers (Incoming Head, Department of History), Dr. Jonathan Ichikawa (Returning Head, Department of Philosophy), Dr. Alan Jacobs (Returning Head, Department of Political Science).
New and newly promoted faculty: Tania Willard, Dr. Gillian Saunders, Dr. Marsha Myrie Obi, Dean Clare Haru Crowston, Dr. Oral Robinson, and Dr. Meg Mills-Novoa
Dean Clare Haru Crowston with Dr. JiaQi Yao and Dr. Aya Yamakawa, new faculty members in the Department of Asian Studies
