Research Library
As part of our commitment to making our work and outputs accessible, and to generate further dialogue on the issues we explore, IICSI has created an online Research Library. Here you will find a range of pieces including films, articles, think pieces, and interviews. Please use the search function or browse, and check back again as this library will be updated regularly.
Research outcomes related to the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice project (2007-2013) are forthcoming.

Randy Weston interviewed by Vijay Iyer – Guelph Jazz Festival 2014
Pianist Randy Weston is interviewed onstage by Vijay Iyer during the 2014 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium.

Evan Parker interviewed by Kevin McNeilly – Guelph Jazz Festival 2015
During the 2015 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium Evan Parker was interviewed by Kevin McNeilly as a keynote presentation.

Douglas R. Ewart – Guelph Jazz Festival 2015
During the 2015 Guelph Jazz Festival Colloquium, Improvisor-In-Residence 2015/16, Douglas R. Ewart was interviewed by Ajay Heble. Ewart discussed his long term project Crepuscule, ideas for his residency in Guelph, Ontario and his journey to and the practice of improvisation.

The Share Publication
In 2012, Improvisers-in-Residence Susanna Hood and Scott Thomson engaged in a broad range of community-based, collaborative creative initiatives in Guelph. This publication gathers a series of reflections on the residency,…

Think Piece: Improvisation and the Syrian Refugee Crisis
ABSTRACT The current Syrian refugee crisis—the civil war and the displaced peoples that resulted from it, but also the crisis with respect to how Western countries have responded to it—affirms…

World Percussion Summit & IICSI Launch
In September 2013 the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) launched with a world percussion summit featuring Hamid Drake, Pandit Anindo Chatterjee, Jesse Stewart and Dong-Won Kim. IICSI…

Critical Studies in Improvisation – Études critiques en improvisation
The Critical Studies in Improvisation/ Études critiques en improvisation is an open-access, peer-reviewed, electronic, academic journal on improvisation, community, and social practice housed at the University of Guelph. The editorial and advisory boards are made up of leading international scholars spanning diverse disciplines.

Improvisation and Leapfrogging
The History of Improvisation in Toronto and the Episteme of the Twentieth Century “I am inclined toward leaping forward” – Mao Zedong, 2 February 1959 “One small step for a…

The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the Ethics of Cocreation
The second book to launch in the Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice series with Duke University Press is the co-authored volume, The Fierce Urgency of Now: Improvisation, Rights, and the…

The Improvisation Studies Reader
Improvisation is a performance practice that animates and activates diverse energies of inspiration, critique, and invention. In recent years it has coalesced into an exciting and innovative new field of…