Department of History

The History Department at the University of British Columbia is an intellectually vibrant centre of scholarship and teaching. We are one of five original departments in the Faculty of Arts that commenced offering undergraduate classes when the University of British Columbia accepted its first students in the fall of 1915. Our faculty have won national and international research fellowships and prizes. Our dedication to teaching has meant that History faculty have been frequent recipients of UBC Killam Teaching Awards.

Our faculty study and teach about the history of Canada, East Asia, Europe, the United States, Latin America, Africa, South and Southeast Asia, and the Near East as well as in the history of science. The History Department offers a complete range of degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate level. Talented and motivated undergraduate students can join our two-year honours program which offers one of the best and most intensive programs of its kind. We offer graduate training in the history of all parts of the world from the medieval period to the present. The Department has special strengths in East Asian history and the history of science. Historians of indigenous history constitute a smaller contingent within the Department, but one that builds on a long and important UBC tradition. Environmental history is a fourth cluster of real significance.

Master's Students
Doctoral Students
Graduate Degrees Awarded

Research Supervisors

Name Research Interests
Booker, Courtney Early medieval europe, histiography, rhetoric, narrative, hermeneutics, literary and textual critcism, latin philology, codicology, transmission of texts, and intertextuality, drama and performativity, politcal theology and l'augustinisme politique, medievalism
Brain, Robert History of Science, Technology, and Medicine, Modern European Cultural and Intellectual History
Brook, Timothy Chinese history, global history, war crimes, Social and cultural history of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), the japanese occupation of China during WW2, historical perspectives on world history and human rights
Byrne, Jeffrey International history; Empires, decolonisation, & postcolonial history; Africa; Middle East; Revolution
Cheek, Timothy 20th century Chinese history, the history of the Chinese communist party, the role of intellectuals in public life in China
Christopoulos, John
Dixon, Joy History of gender, sexuality, and the body, history of religion, history of the social and human sciences, history of empire
Ducharme, Michel Social Organization and Political Systems, Political Ideologies, Canadian History before Confederation, Quebec History, Liberalism and Nationalism in Canada and Quebec, Canada and the Atlantic World
French, William Earl Latin American history, Mexican history (19th and 20th century), Labour and social history, Working class culture, gender
Glassheim, Eagle History of East/Central Europe, modern Germany, environmental history, the Habsburgs
Gorsuch, Anne History; Soviet Union; Russia; tourism; cold war; cultural exchange; the Sixties; youth, Soviet Union, tourism, cultural exchange and global encounter, global sixties, cuba, youth
Ishiguro, Laura British Columbia, Canada, and the British Empire; settler colonialism; migration; family; gender; Publications
Kojevnikov, Alexei Modern history of science, especially physics, science, society,and culture, Russia and Soviet History, Nuclear History and the Cold War
Lee, Steven Hugh Cold war
Loo, Tina Environmental history of Canada
Menkis, Richard Jews and Judaism in Canada Antisemitism in Canada Canada and the Holocaust Jewish historical memory and identity, Modern Jewish history, Canada, ethnicity and historical memory, religion and society, antisemitism, responses to the Holocaust
Miller, Bradley Canadian History, Legal History, International Law and International Relations, Criminal Justice History, North American History, British Empire History, Political History
Morton, David urban Africa; architecture and planning in history; informal settlement, housing, and citizenship; Mozambique in the twentieth century; Portuguese colonialism
Paris, Leslie History of American childhood, History of American summer camps, Modern American social and cultural history, childhood and youth, gender and sexuality, popular culture
Peterson, Glen China, Chinese migration (especially to Southeast Asia), Overseas Chinese and the modernization of China, Refugee movements into and out of China in the twentieth century
Prange, Sebastian History of Major Eras, Great Civilisations or Geographical Corpuses, Religious Systems, Life and Economic Production, Social Organization and Political Systems, History of Capitalism, Economic History, Trade and Trade Diasporas, Islam, South Asia, Indian Ocean
Raibmon, Paige first nations on the northwest coast, cultural representations, relocation of aboriginal peoples, environmental health on reserves, first nations history, Indigenous people and colonisation, life writing and life history
Roosa, John Social Organization and Political Systems, Human Rights and Liberties, Collective Rights, Foreign Affairs, History of Indonesia
Shin, Leo Later imperial China
Thrush, Coll First Nations history, Indigenous, cultural, and world history, colonial and Atlantic, Northwest Coast and Pacific, environmental, place-based histories
Tworek, Heidi Philosophy, History and Comparative Studies, history of media and communications , international relations, international organizations, Germany, Europe
Wang, Jessica US history, 19th and 20th centuries, history of science and medicine, political and intellectual history, social and urban history, US international history
Yu, Henry 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