UBC President Benoit-Antoine Bacon and Dean of Arts Clare Haru Crowston applaud a performance during the President’s Visit to Arts at the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts.
On November 25, 2025, the Faculty of Arts was delighted to welcome UBC President and Vice-Chancellor Benoit-Antoine Bacon to the Chan Centre for the Performing Arts for an afternoon celebrating innovative research, creative practice, and transformative teaching across the Faculty of Arts.
The event brought together faculty, students, staff, Academic Heads and Directors, and leaders from Arts’ cultural venues for a series of research presentations and live performances. Spanning disciplines from music and theatre to archaeology, journalism, economics, psychology, and community-engaged scholarship, presenters demonstrated how Arts research and creative practice deepen understanding of pressing social issues, advance public knowledge, and strengthen connections with communities at UBC and beyond.
Music & Performance
Arts performances opened and closed the event, grounding the afternoon in creative practice.
Finding the Mother Tree
T. Patrick (Pat) Carrabré, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts and School of Music
Composer Pat Carrabré opened the program with a screening of Finding the Mother Tree, a recent work created for the Pacific Baroque Orchestra in collaboration with Early Music Vancouver. Drawing on historical musical traditions, the piece reflects on ecological themes and offers an example of how contemporary composition can engage with environmental ideas.
Selections from Schwanengesang by Franz Schubert
David Fung and Daniel Moody, School of Music
Pianist David Fung and countertenor Daniel Moody presented live selections from Schubert’s Schwanengesang. Their performance highlighted both the depth of musical scholarship within UBC Arts and the power of live music to anchor shared experience.
Research Engaged with Community & Social Change
Across disciplines, Arts scholars are working alongside communities to address urgent social challenges.
Andrew Martindale and Leona Sparrow spoke about UBC's partnership with the Musqueam First Nation.
Andrew Martindale and Leona Sparrow spoke about UBC's partnership with the Musqueam First Nation.
Andrew Martindale, Leona Sparrow, President Bacon and Dean Crowston.
Lindsey Richardson shares research on the socioeconomic drivers of overdose risk and drug-related harm.
Lindsey Richardson, President Bacon, Catherine Corrigall-Brown (Head of Sociology) and Dean Clare Crowston.
JP Catungal and Laura Ishiguro highlighted community-engaged scholarship through Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies and the Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement.
Laura Ishiguro shared how ACAM and ACRE connect research with activism, public dialogue, and lived experience.
Henry Yu, co-director of the Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement.
The xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Archaeology Centre at UBC
Andrew Martindale, Department of Anthropology with Leona Sparrow, Musqueam Liaison to UBC
Prof. Martindale and Leona Sparrow spoke about the prospective xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam) Archaeology Centre at UBC and the long-standing partnership between UBC and the Musqueam First Nation. Their presentation demonstrated community-engaged approaches to archaeology that centre Indigenous knowledge, relationships, and stewardship, and support Musqueam priorities in research, teaching, and cultural heritage.
Addressing Socioeconomic Drivers of Overdose and Drug-Related Harm
Lindsey Richardson, Department of Sociology
Prof. Richardson shared research examining the impacts of poverty on overdose risk and drug-related harm in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and beyond. Her work emphasizes the importance of social, structural and policy-level interventions in addressing public health crises.
Advancing Community-Engaged Scholarship in Asian Canadian Studies
JP Catungal, Centre for Asian Canadian Research and Engagement (ACRE) and Laura Ishiguro, Asian Canadian and Asian Migration Studies (ACAM)
Profs. Catungal and Ishiguro shared work from ACAM and ACRE, focusing on students’ transformative research conducted in purposeful partnership with community organizations, cultural institutions, and policy makers. They highlighted some of the wide-ranging impacts of students’ work including contributions to better community-engaged research practices at the university, award-winning museum exhibitions, municipal apologies, community organizations’ public programming, and international advocacy efforts.
Understanding the Past, Informing the Present
Arts research spans deep history and contemporary realities, offering insight into how societies form, adapt, and tell their stories.
Kevin Fisher presents archaeological research on ancient urban landscapes in Cyprus, integrating fieldwork and digital methods.
President Bacon, Kevin Fisher, Matthew McCarty, and Dean Crowston.
Peter Klein spoke about the Global Reporting Centre’s work supporting collaborative, international journalism.
President Bacon with representatives from the UBC Global Reporting Centre and the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media.
Kamal Al-Solaylee, Director of the School of Journalism, Writing, and Media
Investigating Ancient Urban Landscapes on Cyprus
Kevin Fisher, Department of Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Studies
Prof. Fisher presented research exploring ancient urban environments on Cyprus, using archaeological evidence and new digital technologies to better understand how cities developed, changed, and adapted over time. The project sheds light on long-term urban processes that continue to inform contemporary conversations about how cities shape social interaction and power dynamics, while providing hands-on training opportunities through its field school.
UBC’s Global Reporting Centre
Peter Klein, School of Journalism, Writing and Media
Representing the Global Reporting Centre, Prof. Peter Klein highlighted UBC’s leadership in collaborative, international investigative journalism. The Centre brings together students, scholars, and news organizations worldwide to produce rigorous, solutions-driven reporting that strengthens public accountability and deepens global understanding.
Migration, Inequality & the Climate Crisis
Interdisciplinary research in Arts tackles some of today’s most complex and interconnected global challenges.
Sarah Leavitt presented Crossing Lines, a comics project exploring human migration.
Sarah Leavitt (Creative Writing), President Bacon, Suzanne Huot (Centre for Migration Studies) and Dean Crowston.
Mohammed (Rafi) Arefin shared research from the Housing & Climate Project and its focus on tenant precarity.
Mohammed (Rafi) Arefin, UBC Centre for Climate Justice.
David Green introduced research from the Stone Centre on Wealth and Income Inequality.
President Bacon with David Green and Priscilla Fisher from the Stone Centre
Elizabeth Dunn shares insights from the Happy Climate Project on wellbeing and climate action.
Crossing Lines: Comics and Human Migration
Sarah Leavitt, School of Creative Writing
Joined by colleagues Suzanne Huot and Marie Frileux from the Centre for Migration Studies, Prof. Leavitt presented Crossing Lines, a collaborative project that brings together scholars, artists, and institutions to create a book of comics exploring human migration. The project demonstrates the power of creative storytelling to communicate complex research in accessible, humane ways.
The James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Centre on Wealth and Income Inequality
David Green, Vancouver School of Economics
Prof. Green introduced the work of the Stone Centre on Wealth and Income Inequality, which examines economic disparities in Canada and contributes evidence to public policy debates on fairness and opportunity.
The Housing and Climate Project
Mohammed (Rafi) Arefin and Trevor Barnes, Department of Geography
Prof. Arefin shared research from the Housing & Climate Project, which examines how housing systems and climate change interact to create precarity for tenants in British Columbia. The community-engaged work advances rights-based approaches to heat and housing insecurity.
The Happy Climate Project
Elizabeth (Liz) Dunn, Department of Psychology
Prof. Dunn discussed insights from the Happy Climate Project, a collaboration with Dr. Jiaying Zhao, which explores how individual and collective wellbeing relate to climate action, and how emotional resilience can support sustainable behaviour.
Theatre & Artistic Futures
The event closed by spotlighting the next generation of Arts creators and practitioners.
BFA Acting students perform scenes from Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play
Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play
Fourth-year BFA Theatre Acting students presented scenes from Mr. Burns, A Post-Electric Play, showcasing student creativity and collaboration across acting, design, and sound. Directed by Larisse Campbell (MFA Directing student) and performed by Ava Albaisa, Cassandra Billy, Japnaam Kaur, Matthew Jin, Isabel Salazar, Kyle Deslippe, Riya Chahal, and Fiona Silvis, the production showcased the power of theatrical storytelling.
Costumes were designed by Lauren Rankin (4th-year BFA Theatre Design and Production student), with musical direction by Mishelle Cuttler (BFA alumni).
A Moment of Celebration
President Bacon helps celebrate the Arts Co-op Program’s 25th anniversary by cutting the cake alongside students and staff, including Anna Jubilo—one of the program’s inaugural students and now its Assistant Director.
The afternoon also marked a milestone for the Arts Co-op Program, which celebrated its 25th anniversary. President Bacon joined students and staff in the celebration — cutting and even serving some of the cake — offering a fitting close to a day focused on community, collaboration, and shared achievement.
President Bacon with students from the Arts Undergraduate Society
All photos by Ervin Wong
