Ajay Heble is the founding Director of the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and Professor in the School of English and Theatre Studies at the University of Guelph. He is the author or editor of several books, the founding Artistic Director of the award-winning Guelph Jazz Festival, and a founding co-editor of the peer-reviewed journal Critical Studies in Improvisation/Études critiques en improvisation. In his teaching, Heble has sought to develop pedagogical strategies that foster connections between what students learn or do at university and how they come to understand themselves as socially responsible citizens. Heble is also an accomplished pianist who performs and records with his improvising quartet, the Vertical Squirrels.