IICSI in Amherst

Keynote speaker and IICSI researcher Daniel Fischlin. Photograph by Davis Bannister.

Keynote speaker and IICSI researcher George E. Lewis. Photograph by Davis Bannister.

The Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges (AALAC) presented a workshop on Improvisation, Interdisciplinarity, and the Liberal Arts November 21-23, 2014 at Amherst College in Amherst, MA. Organized by Jason Robinson, keynote speakers were IICSI researchers George E. Lewis (Columbia University) and Daniel Fischlin (University of Guelph). Presentations included “Poetic Instincts—Thinking in Action” (Chris Aiken and Angie Hauser, Smith College), “Life Practices” (Ann Cooper Albright, Oberlin College), “Translating in the Conditional: Collaborative Music-Making, Emergence, and Breaking the Classroom” (Mark Lomanno, Swarthmore College), “Preaching the Gospel of Improvisation” (Sandra Mathern, Denison U.), “Thinking Through Improvisation: Creative and Critical Thinking in the Liberal Arts Curriculum” (Dominic Poccia, Amherst College), “The Media Arts & Sciences Major at Wellesley” (David Teng-Olsen, Wellesley College), “Improvisation as a Mode of Address” (Monique Roelofs, Hampshire College), “Improvising Histories: Performing the Experiments of Surrealism” (Mercedes Teixido, Pomona College), “International Improvisational Exchange” (Colleen Thomas, Barnard College), and “Jazz, Improvisation and Liveness: Historical Reflections on Jazz as a Live Medium” (Steve Waksman, Smith College). The keynote addresses can be viewed online here.