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

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?”

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Musicology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2023

Author dc:creator

• Stokes, Emmanuel Joshua

Contributors dc:contributor

• Solis, Gabriel
• Magee, Gayle S
• Bashford, Christina
• Silvers, Michael

• Gospel
• College
• African American Sacred Music
• University
• Insider
• Outsider
• Gospel-centric
• Secularity
• Workshops
• Community

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2023 Emmanuel Joshua Stokes

Language dc:language

en, eng

Handle dc:identifier

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

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F121407