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Special Issue: Improvisation and the Liberal Arts

The inspiration for this special issue of Critical Studies in Improvisation / Études critiques en improvisation was born from a conference that took place at Amherst College in 2014. Sponsored by the Alliance to Advance Liberal Arts Colleges, the conference brought together faculty researchers and artists from fifteen liberal arts colleges and research universities in North America. Representing fields as varied as biology, philosophy, English, music, dance, visual art, comparative literature, and computer science, the conference centered on ways in which improvisation is the focus of research and pedagogy in the liberal arts. Lofty in our aspirations, we adopted a simple premise about both improvisation and the liberal arts: like improvisation, the liberal arts advance our understanding of how individuals and communities interact with and relate to one another, and derive meaning from human experience.