Photos of faculty members Dr. Kelly McCormick and Dr. Heidi Tworek from the UBC Department of History
Congratulations to UBC History faculty members Dr. Kelly McCormick and Dr. Heidi Tworek on their recently funded 2026/2027 research clusters!
Research Excellence Clusters are interdisciplinary networks of researchers addressing societal and cultural problems, and working together to solve challenges that transcend traditional boundaries associated with departments, institutions, and funding agencies. Funding for clusters at UBC Vancouver is awarded through the Grants for Catalyzing Research Clusters (GCRC).
Critical Image Forum
Description: Critical Image Forum (CIF) is an interdisciplinary research cluster that focuses on the political, ethical, aesthetic and social dimensions of photography, image archives, and expanded documentary practices. CIF’s research outcomes are concerned with photographic literacy and pedagogy, as well as with supporting interdisciplinary research/creation for faculty and student members, and community researchers. We partner with local, regional, and national organizations to support collaborative projects and public programming. Our 2026-2028 course of research focuses on critical approaches to image archives, collections and networks.
Cluster Co-leads: Kelly McCormick & Althea Thauberger
Sovereignty in a Fractious Age (New Cluster)
Sovereignty is an increasingly urgent topic in our current moment. It is striking that concepts and practices of sovereignty are being broadly reconfigured as groups of scholars, journalists, and members of the public have started to place it at the centre of how they understand the contemporary world. At UBC, many scholars research aspects of sovereignty, but have not engaged with each other. This cluster brings together UBC scholars from multiple disciplines to discuss digital, cultural, and territorial sovereignty. Revisiting and re-imagining sovereignty is crucial as this scholarship can have significant and near-term impact for the present.
Cluster Co-leads: Heidi Tworek & Katherine Bowers
Read about all of the other UBC Arts Research Excellence Clusters that were awarded funding for 2025/2026.
