As an early-career researcher, I study how inclusion—of diverse ways of thinking and being—is accomplished in practice. My work explores how people interact creatively and through technologies.
An Kosurko
Ph.D., Social Sciences
As a Mitacs Postdoctoral fellow supported by the Musagetes Foundation, my current research explores everyday spontaneity in self-directed and collaborative arts and technologies for people living with dementia. The project is called "Improvising with dementia: exploring everyday spontaneity to support caring relationships" and it is hosted by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation (IICSI) in Canada; and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph in Canada. I am also a Research Associate with the Trent Centre for Aging and Society at Trent University in Canada.
I received my Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the University of Helsinki, Finland in June, 2025. My dissertation, "Respecifying social inclusion in practical action" took an ethnomethodological approach using multimodal conversation analysis to explore the living details of how people mediate dance instructions for people who live with dementia in hybrid, online-face-to-face settings.
PARTICIPATE.
Exploring everyday spontaneity to support caring relationships
This arts-based project brings together artists, researchers, and people in caring relationships who live with dementia.
The program consists of various events that include:
An orientation meeting and visioning session (up to 1 hour)
A creative improvisation workshop (approximately 2 hours)
An interview and/or a focus group (approximately 1-2 hours)
Get involved.
For more information and to get involved, please learn more and download the informed consent form.
Our work is supported by the Musagetes Foundation and hosted by the International Institute for Critical Studies in Improvisation and the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at the University of Guelph.
Project Partners
