University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

"You are important to me, I need you to survive": constructing community through college gospel choirs

Stokes, Emmanuel Joshua

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/121407

Description

Title
"You are important to me, I need you to survive": constructing community through college gospel choirs
Author(s)
Stokes, Emmanuel Joshua
Issue Date
2023-06-06
Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)
Solis, Gabriel
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Magee, Gayle S
Committee Member(s)
  • Bashford, Christina
  • Silvers, Michael
Department of Study
Music
Discipline
Musicology
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
  • gospel
  • college
  • African American sacred music
  • university
  • insider
  • outsider
  • gospel-centric
  • secularity
  • workshops
  • community
Abstract
What do college-aged participants stand to gain from participating in gospel choirs on college and university campuses? Why do they even bother to participate? These questions drive this ethnographic study. Conducted between 2014 and 2021, one hundred and thirty-one college students participated in a study examining why they sing gospel music on college and university campuses, and at subsequent gospel music workshop experiences. This study, through the lens of ethnography “unpacks” their experience to show that their participation is rewarded with benefits that are mirrored in participating in African American church traditions. This text begins by unpacking Glenn Hinson’s text Fire in My Bones which served as the model for this project. Then it shares a case study on church choir participation from an interdominational church experience that challenged ideas of insiders and outsiders to gospel music. That is then followed by a case study on a college and university gospel music workshop observed in conjunction with this research that shared features with the church case study. Later I share my own ethnographic work beginning with the question to participants, “why do you sing in gospel choir at college/university?”
Graduation Semester
2023-08
Type of Resource
Thesis
Copyright and License Information
Copyright 2023 Emmanuel Joshua Stokes

Owning Collections

Graduate Dissertations and Theses at Illinois PRIMARY
Graduate Theses and Dissertations at Illinois