Improvisation, Community and Social Practice:
A Research Project
New research on improvisation in which Center for Jazz Studies scholars are participating includes “Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice,” a seven-year “Major Collaborative Research Initiative” funded by Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC).
Centered at the University of Guelph (and in partnership with McGill University, the University of British Columbia, and Université de Montréal), this international research project explores musical improvisation as a model for social change.
This project is playing a leading role in defining a new field of interdisciplinary research to shape political, cultural, and ethical dialogue and action, bringing together a dynamic international research team of more than thirty scholars from eighteen universities, as well as twelve community groups. The project focuses upon specific research in seven areas related to improvisation: law and justice, pedagogy, social policy, transcultural understanding, gender and the body, text and media, and social aesthetics.
“Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice” provides exciting opportunities for students and postdoctoral fellows through its work program and summer institutes, as well as information-sharing opportunities through its colloquia, website, and publications, including its associated on-line journal, Critical Studies in Improvisation.
© 2008, Columbia University Center for Jazz Studies.
Last Updated September 2, 2008.
