IICSI Researcher Gillian Siddall at ECUAD

IICSI team member Gillian Siddall has become the new President and Vice Chancellor of Vancouver’s Emily Carr University of Art and Design (ECUAD). Dr. Siddall (PhD English, University of Western Ontario) is stepping down from her role as Dean of Social Sciences and Humanities at Lakehead University, Thunder Bay, in order to begin at ECUAD September 1. She is the author of several publications on bodies and improvisation: “A Musical Interface for People with Severe Physical Disabilities” (co-authored with Pauline Oliveros, Leaf Miller, Jaclyn Heyen, and Sergio Hazard, 2011), “‘I want to live in that music’: Blues, Bessie Smith and Improvised Identities in Ann-Marie MacDonald’s Fall on Your Knees,” (2005), and “Nice Work if You Can Get It: Women in Jazz” (co-authored with Ajay Heble, 2000). As a jazz vocalist and a co-founder of the legendary Guelph Jazz Festival, Siddall says, “Being a jazz musician I think is a great asset for someone coming into an art and design university where one is neither an artist nor a designer, but having that same creative background, that same commitment to making, to creating, to thinking about knowledge in a different way and in different media.”

Congratulations, Gillian!

This news item originally appeared in the  August 2018 edition of Improv Notes.
As of October 2014, Improv Notes is edited and written by David Lee and assembled by administrative assistant Rachel Collins. If you have anything improvisation related that you would like included in the newsletter, please email [email protected].