About

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.

While improvisational music has historically been analyzed within specific musical disciplines, what distinguishes the research profiled in CSI/ÉCI is its emphasis on improvisation as a site for the analysis of social practice. We contend that improvisation demands shared responsibility for participation in community, an ability to negotiate differences, and a willingness to accept the challenges of risk and contingency. Yet improvisation is a contested term. Its cultural significance is in dispute both in the academy and in the broader public understanding. CSI/ÉCI seeks to reveal the complex structures of improvisational practices and to develop an enriched understanding of the social, political, and cultural functions those practices play.

We are particularly interested in historically and contextually specific articles that interrogate improvisation as a social and musical practice, and that assess how innovative performance practices play a role in developing new, socially responsive forms of community building across national, cultural, and artistic boundaries.

Editorial policy and ethics

Peer Review Process

1. A paper is submitted by email to CSI/ÉCI at which point the Managing Editor sends an email to the author acknowledging receipt of the submission. 
2. The General Editors then make an initial decision about whether the submission should proceed to the next stage of the editorial process. If the editors decide that this is not the case, an email is sent to author indicating that the submission has been rejected. 
3. If the Editors decide that the paper should be submitted for review, the paper is sent electronically, ideally, to one member of the editorial board and one member of the advisory board. In the case that a paper cannot be reviewed by a member of each board, two members of the advisory board will be asked to conduct the review. In certain circumstances, outside consultant readers will be invited to review a paper. 
4. Within five weeks the reviewers must forward their comments to the General Editors or Managing Editor who in turn forward the reviewers’ comments to the author. 
5. If both the reviewers have advised that the submission be accepted for publication, the submission is edited by one of the Editors and then published. If one reviewer accepts the publication and the other reviewer rejects the publication, the submission is either forwarded to a third reviewer, or left with one of the General Editors, for further consideration. 
6. The reviewers may decide that the submission should be revised and resubmitted, at which point the author must revise and then re-submit the paper. The author must attach to his or her resubmitted paper a statement indicating what revisions have been made. The re-submitted paper will then be forwarded to at least one of the two initial reviewers who must decide at this point whether or not the submission should be published.

Open Access Policy

This journal provides open access to all of its content on the principle that making research freely available to the public supports a greater global exchange of knowledge. Such access is associated with increased readership and increased citation of an author's work. For more information on this approach, see the Public Knowledge Project, which has designed this system to improve the scholarly and public quality of research, and which freely distributes the journal system as well as other software to support the open access publishing of scholarly resources.

Editorial board

Editorial Team

Editors

• Eric Fillion (School of Languages and Literatures, University of Guelph)
• Daniel Fischlin (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph)
• Ajay Heble (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph)
• Kevin McNeilly (Department of English, University of British Columbia)
• Alyssa Woods (School of Fine Art and Music, University of Guelph)

Media Reviews Editor

• Chris J Tonelli (Faculty of Arts, University of Groningen)

Associate Editors

• jashen edwards (PhD Candidate, Music Education, Western University)
• Erin Felepchuk (PhD Candidate, Critical Studies in Improvisation, University of Guelph)

Managing Editor

• Sam Boer (University of Guelph)

Past Editors

• Frederique Arroyas (University of Guelph)
• Ellen Waterman (Music, Carleton University)

Past Managing Editors

Gregory Fenton, Michelle Peek, Lauren Katsuno, Ingrid Mundel, Katherine Perott, Hanna Smith, Benjamin Walsh, Rachel Collins, Ariel Oleynikov

Past Copyeditors / Proofreaders

Lierin McConachie, Kent Smith, Rebecca Olivier, Leslie Allin, Andrew Bretz, Karl Coulthard,  Gregory Fenton, Melissa Walker, Joe Sorbara, Paul Danyluk, Dallas Hunt, Mark Kaethler, Cory Lavender, David Lee, Shayna Devlin, Mary King, Tom Laughlin, Erin Felepchuk, Sam Boer

Special Issue Editors 

• Improvisation, Musical Communities, and the COVID-19 Pandemic (Vol. 14, No. 2–3, 2021): Daniel Fischlin, Laura Risk, and Jesse Stewart
• Improvisation, Musical Communities, and the COVID-19 Pandemic (Vol. 14, No. 1, 2021): Daniel Fischlin, Laura Risk, and Jesse Stewart
• Improvisation and the Liberal Arts (Vol. 13, No. 1, 2020): Jason Robinson, Mark Lomanno, and Sandra Mathern-Smith
• Just Improvisation: Enriching Law through Musical Techniques, Discources, and Pedagogies (Vol. 12, No. 1, 2017): Sarah Ramshaw (Law, University of Victoria) and Paul Steinbeck (School of Arts, English, and Languages, Queen's University Belfast)
• Improvisation and Global Sites of Difference (Vol. 11, No. 1–2, 2016): Daniel Fischlin (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph) and Eric Porter (American Studies, University of California)
• A Home Away From Home - Improviser au 21ème siècle (Vol. 10, No. 2, 2015): Amandine Pras (Music, University of Lethbridge)
• Cyphers: Hip Hop and Improvisation (Vol. 10 No. 1, 2014): Paul Watkins and Rebecca Caines
• Ethics and the Improvising Business (Vol. 9, No. 1, 2013): Mark Laver, Tina Piper, and Ajay Heble
• Improvisational Attitudes: Reflections from Art and Life on Certainty, Failure, and Doubt (Vol. 8, No. 2, 2012): Amanda Ravetz, Anne Douglas, and Kathleen Coessens
• Brazilian Improvisations / Improvisações Brasileiras (Vol. 7, No. 1, 2011): Jason Stanyek (Faculty of Music, University of Oxford) and Alessandra Santos (Latin American Studies, University of British Columbia)
• Lex Non Scripta, Ars Non Scripta: Law, Justice, and Improvisation (2010): Tina Piper (Faculty of Law, McGill University) and Ellen Waterman (Music, Carleton University)
• Sexualities in Improvisation (Vol. 4, No. 2, 2008): Kevin McNeilly (Department of English, University of British Columbia) and Julie Dawn Smith (Interdisciplinary Studies, University of British Columbia)
• Improvisation and Pedagogy (Vol. 3, No. 2, 2007): Ajay Heble (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph) and Ellen Waterman (Music, Carleton University)
• Asian Improvisation (Vol. 1, No. 3, 2006): Ellen Waterman (Music, Carleton University)

Board Members

• Georgina Born (Faculty of Music, Oxford University)
• Eric Lewis (Department of Philosophy, McGill University)
• George E. Lewis (Department of Music, Columbia University)
• George Lipsitz (Department of Black Studies, University of California)
• Jesse Stewart (School of Studies in Art and Culture, Carleton University)

Past Board Member

• George E. Lewis (Département de musique, Université de Columbia)

Advisory Board

• David Ake (Department of Musicology, Frost School of Music)
• Ann Cooper Albright (Professor of Dance, Oberlin College)
• Christian Bethune (Centre Intrerdisciplinaire d'Etude et de Recherches sure L'Expression Contemporaine, Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne et L'Université de Lyon)
• Christine Bold (School of English & Theatre Studies, University of Guelph)
• Rob Bowman (School of Arts, Media, Performance, and Design, York University)
• Dionne Brand (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph)
• Marcel Cobussen (Full Professor of Auditory Culture and Music Philosophy, Leiden University)
• Warren Crichlow (Faculty of Education, York University)
• Roger T. Dean (The MARCS Institute, University of Western Sydney)
• Tamas Dobozy (Department of English and Film Studies, Wilfrid Laurier University)
• William Thomas Gustav Edmondes (School of Arts and Cultures, Newcastle University)
• Cecil Foster (Department of Transnational Studies, University of Buffalo) 
• Ichiro Fujinaga (Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Music Media & Technology, McGill University)
• James Harley (School of Fine Arts & Music, University of Guelph)
• Linda Hutcheon (Department of English and Comparitive Literature, University of Toronto)
• Elizabeth Jackson (Community Engaged Scholarship Institute, University of Guelph)
• Ric Knowles (School of English and Theatre Studies, University of Guelph)
• David Lametti (Faculty of Law, McGill University)
• Mark Laver (Music Department, Grinnell College)
• Eric Lewis (Department of Philosophy, McGill University)
• Desmond Manderson (Centre for Law Arts and Humanities, Australian National University)
• Ingrid Monson (Department of African and African American Studies, Harvard University)
• Alexandre Pierrepont (Paris 7 - Denis Diderot, Sciences Po, and Columbia University in Paris)
• Joshua Pilzer (Faculty of Music and Centre for the Study of Korea at the Asian Institute, University of Toronto)  
• Tina Piper (Faculty of Law, McGill University)
• Eric Porter (Department of Music, University of California)
• Jason Robinson (Department of Music, Amherst College)
• Keith Sawyer (Department of Educational Innovations; Learning Sciences and Psychological Studies, University of North Carolina)
• Gillian Siddall (President and Vice-Chancellor of Emily Carr University of Art and Design) 
• Alan Stanbridge (Department of Arts, Culture, and Media, University of Toronto)
• Jason Stanyek (Faculty of Music, University of Oxford)
• Jesse Stewart (School of Studies in Art and Culture, Carleton University)
• Charles Taylor (Philosophy, McGill University)
• Sherrie Tucker (American Studies, University of Kansas)
• Daniel Weinstock (Faculty of Law, McGill University)

Past Advisory Board Members

• Winfried Siemerling (English Language & Literature, University of Waterloo)
• Howard Spring (School of Fine Art and Music, University of Guelph)
• William Straw (Department of Art History & Communication Studies, McGill University)
• Jim Vernon (Philosophy Department, York University)