Dr Rebecca Caines

I believe in interdisciplinary collaboration, innovative creation, critical thought, and community connection. In these things I find hope.


Dr Rebecca Caines is an Assistant Professor in Creative Technologies in the Department of Theate and Performance at York University, in Canada. She is a socially-engaged artist working in sound art, performance, new media and installation, and she collaborates with a wide range of community partners in Canada, Australia, Northern Ireland, China and Europe. Her academic background is in Critical Studies in Improvisation, and Performance Studies. She was the director of the Regina Improvisation Studies Centre, one of the six sites of the "International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation" (IICSI). With Ajay Heble, she co-edited The Improvisation Studies Reader (Routledge 2015), and is working on a book on improvisation, community, and interdisicplinarity, for Temple University Press. She currently is leading the national art project "multiPLAY," exploring digital engagement with improvising arts. Her work explores art and social justice, contemporary understandings of community, and the fragile promise of ethical connection offered through dialogic approaches.

Email: rcaines@yorku.ca

International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation: https://improvisationinstitute.ca/