Welcome from our Director Ajay Heble

Welcome to the website for the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation. Generously funded through the Partnership Grant program of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), and centred at the University of Guelph, our Institute has partner sites at McGill University in Montreal, University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Memorial University of Newfoundland in St. John’s, University of Regina, and the University of California at Santa Barbara. The institute brings together a dynamic international team of 58 researchers from 20 different institutions, and we have formal partnerships with over 30 community-based organizations. These range from music festivals and social service organizations to government agencies, health care centres, and a foundation focusing on the arts as a spark for social change. Over the last several years, our work has helped to shape and define a brand new field of interdisciplinary inquiry. We now have several annual international conferences across multiple sites, our own peer-reviewed scholarly journal, and a book series with a leading academic press. With the institute we now seek to formalize that field by creating positive social change through the confluence of improvisational arts, innovative scholarship, and collaborative action.

On our website, you’ll find information about our events, activities, projects, and outcomes, as well as specially commissioned and curated research content. We’ll be uploading new content regularly, so please do plan to check back often.

Thank you for visiting.

Ajay Heble
Director
International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation