SETS ICASP Spotlight

Did you know that the School of English and Theatre Studies is home to one of the largest research grants in the arts and humanities in Canada? The MCRI-funded Improvisation, Community, and Social Practice (ICASP) research project explores musical improvisation as a model for social change. One of the research premises for the project is that music and community outreach through music can change lives and communities for the better. The project is defining a new field of interdisciplinary research, improvisation studies, working with a remarkable team of researchers and musicians from across the globe. In addition to its interdisciplinary research initiatives, ICASP works with community partners on a number of innovative outreach projects: the Improviser-in-Residence program, KidsAbility, Jazz in the Schools, various colloquia that ICASP sponsors, reading groups, summer institutes, and, of course, musical partnerships and events. 

 ICASP features two professors from the School of English and Theatre Studies who both serve ascore researchers and project coordinators for the project: Ajay Heble (the Project Director, as well the Artistic Director of the Guelph Jazz Festival) and Daniel Fischlin (Management Team member and General Editor of the ICASP Book Series with Duke University Press). Check out the link to the following video, which provides an overview of the ICASP project and its dynamic relationship with community (within and beyond academic institutions) via the project’s constant promotion of cross-cultural dialogue across disciplines.

Multiple research opportunities exist for graduate students interested in Graduate Student Research Assistantships sponsored by ICASP.

 SETS / ICASP Doctoral Student Paul Watkins (DJ Techné) in performance.