Page 1 Lasserre Building, home of the Visual Resource Centre ...

Lasserre Building, home of the Visual Resource Centre
Research Culture
UBC is rated in the top 35 universities in the world. Film studies
benefits, therefore, from UBC’s major research library. Students
have full access to the Visual Resource Centre, which houses over
6,000 DVDs and videos. Eight viewing stations and a screening
room are available to students to view material.
The Film Studies faculty also supports the Centre for Cinema
Studies, which provides a home for faculty research projects and
visiting researchers. Check it out on the film studies website.
An extra-curricular Graduate student “Theory Book club” is
facilitated by Lisa Coulthard.
The city of Vancouver boasts two art-house cinemas, numerous
film festivals, and is the centre of “Hollywood North,” the third
largest film industrial activity in North America after Los Angeles
and New York.
Recently Completed Theses: Students have recently completed
theses on the films of Pedro Almodovar, the film adaptations of
Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice, the American conspiracy films of
the 1970s and 2000s, and the films of Steven Soderbergh. Current
MA student thesis projects include studies of the Out on Screen
Film Festival, the Neo-Western, Extreme Cinema, Screen Culture,
and Immigrant Cinema.
Recent MA Courses: Film Violence, Cult Cinema, Contemporary
Film Theory, Transnational Cinema, Research Methods, Films of
David Cronenberg, Zizek and Cinema.
MA Faculty
Lisa Coulthard holds a Ph.D. from the
University of Toronto. Her main research
falls into the areas of film theory and
violence. She is particularly interested in
film sound and violence, contemporary
American and European cinemas,
continental philosophy and Lacanian
theory. Currently writing a book titled The
Super Sounds of Quentin Tarantino, she has
presented her work at dozens of conferences,
has many articles published or forthcoming
in major journals and edited collections and is on the editorial board
for The International Journal of Zizek Studies.
Ernest Mathijs holds a Ph.D. from the Free
University of Brussels. His main research
interests include the reception of alternative
cinema, cult cinema, and film and stage
performance. He is the editor or co-editor of
10 books, author of a dozen journal articles
and book chapters, and the author of The
Cinema of David Cronenberg: from Baron
of Blood to Cultural Hero. He heads the
Department’s Centre for Cinema Studies
and he is the series editor of Contemporary
Cinema and Cultographies. He is currently co-authoring a textbook on
cult cinema and preparing an anthology on film censorship.
Brian McIlroy holds a Ph.D. from the
University of British Columbia. His main
research interests are in Canadian and Irish
Cinema and Media. He also has interests
in cultural studies and theory. He is the
author, editor or co-editor of six books,
the most recent being Genre and Cinema:
Ireland and Transnationalism (Routledge,
2007). Author of some 45 book chapters,
journal articles and book reviews, in
2007-08 he was President of the Film
Studies Association of Canada. He is co-founder of the Department’s
Centre for Cinema Studies, and some of his work can be read at www.
centreforcinemastudies.com. Currently, he is exploring the potential
of researching early cinemagoing and film exhibition in Vancouver.
Visual Resource Centre
Graduate Student Support
Graduate Entrance Scholarships: Students who are admitted to
the MA program are eligible for a Graduate Entrance scholarship.
Teaching Assistantships: Normally, all accepted entering
students are offered a teaching assistantship, which is renewable
for a second year. The duties include grading essays and taking
discussion groups of first and second year film studies students
on a weekly basis.
Research Assistantships: Internal and External grants awarded
to the faculty occasionally supplement students in the program.
SSHRC Masters and University Graduate Fellowships:
Those students not entering with a SSHRC-Masters award will
be entered for the competition for their second year of study.
All students will normally be entered for the UBC Graduate
fellowship program for their second year of study.
For more detailed information on UBC’s many programs that
provide financial help to graduate students, please visit:
www.grad.ubc.ca/awards

The Royal Bank Cinema in the Chan Centre for the
Performing Arts. Photo by Ivan Hunter
Cinephile
Since 2005, the graduate students in the MA program have edited
the journal Cinephile. It provides opportunities for students to be
on an editorial board and to see their best work published. Recent
guest faculty include essays from Slavoj Zizek and Barry Keith
Grant.
For more information on Cinephile, visit cinephile.ca.
“Hollywood & Liberalism”
(Volume 3, Fall 2007)
“Post-Genre”
(Volume 4, Summer 2008)
MA Film Studies at UBC
Since 1984, UBC’s Department of Theatre and Film has
granted MA degrees in Film Studies. The MA is a two year
program with thesis.
We’re looking for recent and upcoming graduates of
undergraduate film and media studies programs.
At least half of our MA graduates have gone on to Ph.D.
programs in the UK, USA and Canada, and many of those onto
teaching positions at universities. Our graduates also have
positions or careers in publicity, arts administration, festival
programming, publishing and screenwriting.
Application Deadline
February 2nd 2009 for September 2009 start.
Apply online at www.grad.ubc.ca and also consult our film
studies website for application details: www.film.ubc.ca.
Queries? Email the MA advisor: emathijs@interchange.ubc.ca
Film Studies
Department of Theatre & Film
Suite 2354a, Brock Hall Annex
1874 East Mall
University of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C. Canada, V6T 1Z1
Telephone: 604-822-6037 Fax: 604-822-0508
www.film.ubc.ca
u n i v e r s i t y o f b r i t i s h c o l u m b i a
MA
Film
Studies