Thalea Stokes
Thalea Stokes is a professional musician and aspiring educator. Hailing from Atlanta, GA, Thalea has achieved a great variety of personal and professional accomplishments throughout her life and career.
Being born to military parents and thus traveling the world from infancy, she started life immersed in many different cultures, gaining a profound interest in learning about people around the world. From developing an intense, self-guided interest in Japanese language and culture, to taking her first of soon to be many trips to China at the age of 16, Thalea has been deeply invested in cultural appreciation and developing this appreciation into meaningful, lifelong goals.
In addition to cultural appreciation, Thalea explored Western European art music appreciation at an early age. She began studying double bass, as well as piano, at twelve. As a teen, she participated in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Talent Development Program, where she studied under professional bassists Chester Griffin, Ralph Jones and Dr. Jacqueline Pickett. By the time she had graduated high school (Salutatorian from DeKalb School of the Arts, Atlanta), Thalea was an active member of four different orchestras.
She went on to attend and graduate Summa Cum Laude from Western Michigan University, where she was conferred three degrees: a Master of Arts in Music with a focus in Ethnomusicology (her Master’s thesis, titled Across the Red Steppe: Exploring Mongolian Music in China and Exporting it from Within, is a comprehensive ethnography of the unique and diasporic effects of Mongolian music culture in China); a Bachelor of Music in Double Bass Performance, studying under Tom Knific, with a minor concentration in Mandarin Chinese; and a Bachelor of Arts in International and Global Studies with a geographical focus area on China
Thalea is also very proud of her various other experiences in Kalamazoo, including working at the WMU Confucius Institute, teaching double bass Crescendo Academy of Music and Mandarin at Kalamazoo Chinese Christian Church, and serving as a counselor and Assistant Site Coordinator at Sherman Lake Summer Camp and at Educating for Freedom in Schools respectively.
Thalea is now a PhD student in Ethnomusicology at the University of Chicago where she is continuing her focus on Mongolian music, specifically the cultural leveling effect rap and hip-hop music appears to have among Mongols in Mongolia and throughout the Mongolian diaspora. In addition to her primary coursework at UChicago, she has participated in the University Symphony Orchestra for three consecutive years. Moreover, she has held the office of President of the Central Asian Studies Society for the same length of time, during which she has managed the invitations and speaking engagements/performances of prominent figures in Central Asian interest circles such as Sas Carey, the Alash Ensemble, and Khusugtun.
Thalea recently returned to Atlanta, GA after conducting fieldwork in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Hohhot, China for her dissertation. As an American Center for Mongolian Studies Field Research Fellow, her work in Ulaanbaatar has been sponsored and vitally aided by the staff and members of ACMS, without whom the research trip in its entirety would not have been possible. Thalea will reach All But Dissertation (ABD) status in 2019, and is expected to be conferred her doctorate in 2020.
As a result of her experiences and accomplishments thus far, Thalea’s primary aspiration in life is to establish a school for international music, modeled after her own fine arts high school, to provide a means by which school-aged children can critically study and engage with different cultures and languages through culturally relevant and diverse music.
Being born to military parents and thus traveling the world from infancy, she started life immersed in many different cultures, gaining a profound interest in learning about people around the world. From developing an intense, self-guided interest in Japanese language and culture, to taking her first of soon to be many trips to China at the age of 16, Thalea has been deeply invested in cultural appreciation and developing this appreciation into meaningful, lifelong goals.
In addition to cultural appreciation, Thalea explored Western European art music appreciation at an early age. She began studying double bass, as well as piano, at twelve. As a teen, she participated in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra Talent Development Program, where she studied under professional bassists Chester Griffin, Ralph Jones and Dr. Jacqueline Pickett. By the time she had graduated high school (Salutatorian from DeKalb School of the Arts, Atlanta), Thalea was an active member of four different orchestras.
She went on to attend and graduate Summa Cum Laude from Western Michigan University, where she was conferred three degrees: a Master of Arts in Music with a focus in Ethnomusicology (her Master’s thesis, titled Across the Red Steppe: Exploring Mongolian Music in China and Exporting it from Within, is a comprehensive ethnography of the unique and diasporic effects of Mongolian music culture in China); a Bachelor of Music in Double Bass Performance, studying under Tom Knific, with a minor concentration in Mandarin Chinese; and a Bachelor of Arts in International and Global Studies with a geographical focus area on China
Thalea is also very proud of her various other experiences in Kalamazoo, including working at the WMU Confucius Institute, teaching double bass Crescendo Academy of Music and Mandarin at Kalamazoo Chinese Christian Church, and serving as a counselor and Assistant Site Coordinator at Sherman Lake Summer Camp and at Educating for Freedom in Schools respectively.
Thalea is now a PhD student in Ethnomusicology at the University of Chicago where she is continuing her focus on Mongolian music, specifically the cultural leveling effect rap and hip-hop music appears to have among Mongols in Mongolia and throughout the Mongolian diaspora. In addition to her primary coursework at UChicago, she has participated in the University Symphony Orchestra for three consecutive years. Moreover, she has held the office of President of the Central Asian Studies Society for the same length of time, during which she has managed the invitations and speaking engagements/performances of prominent figures in Central Asian interest circles such as Sas Carey, the Alash Ensemble, and Khusugtun.
Thalea recently returned to Atlanta, GA after conducting fieldwork in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and Hohhot, China for her dissertation. As an American Center for Mongolian Studies Field Research Fellow, her work in Ulaanbaatar has been sponsored and vitally aided by the staff and members of ACMS, without whom the research trip in its entirety would not have been possible. Thalea will reach All But Dissertation (ABD) status in 2019, and is expected to be conferred her doctorate in 2020.
As a result of her experiences and accomplishments thus far, Thalea’s primary aspiration in life is to establish a school for international music, modeled after her own fine arts high school, to provide a means by which school-aged children can critically study and engage with different cultures and languages through culturally relevant and diverse music.
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Papers by Thalea Stokes
display a markedly Han society to the world at large, Mongolian musicians and Mongolian-music enthusiasts in China maintain and evolve their musical culture in a nebulous middle-ground between Mongolian and Han-Chinese culture. How Mongolian
music culture in China came to be and its ultimate function in global society are the key questions being investigated in this thesis. Using historical evidence, hands on interactions with local peoples, and first-person interviews with persons immersed in the
music culture (both professional and amateur), this research concludes that the best outlet Mongolians in China (and Mongolians in Mongolia) have of preserving their music is
exporting it to the world through the auspices of the People’s Republic of China. Thus, Mongolian music culture in China acts as both a buffer and a bond between Mongolia and China while bringing foreign interests in to gain a closer look and a deeper
appreciation for Mongolian culture.
Conference Presentations by Thalea Stokes
Talks by Thalea Stokes
Hip hop as an imported cultural product is a relative newcomer in East and Central Asia, and while it is particularly young in Mongolia, it has experienced rapid and profound changes in its short period of growth. Following a trajectory of popular acceptance similar to that in the US but at a much faster pace, shapers of the Mongolian hip hop community have quickly adapted to and adopted new influences, drastically growing the art’s fan base. Perhaps most importantly, it has served a vital role in constructing contemporary Mongolian identity, proposing a Mongolianness that is historically grounded, that is able to easily keep pace with an ever accelerating world, and that has the potential to act as a cultural bonding agent between Mongols in Mongolia and in China, where the relationship between whom has been, and still is, complex and not without strife.
This talk presents the first of a two-part research project into the hip hop scene among Mongols in Mongolia and in China, and the nature of the relationship between the two scenes. The talk will feature preliminary findings and propose further paths for investigation related to the Mongolian hip hop scene.
display a markedly Han society to the world at large, Mongolian musicians and Mongolian-music enthusiasts in China maintain and evolve their musical culture in a nebulous middle-ground between Mongolian and Han-Chinese culture. How Mongolian
music culture in China came to be and its ultimate function in global society are the key questions being investigated in this thesis. Using historical evidence, hands on interactions with local peoples, and first-person interviews with persons immersed in the
music culture (both professional and amateur), this research concludes that the best outlet Mongolians in China (and Mongolians in Mongolia) have of preserving their music is
exporting it to the world through the auspices of the People’s Republic of China. Thus, Mongolian music culture in China acts as both a buffer and a bond between Mongolia and China while bringing foreign interests in to gain a closer look and a deeper
appreciation for Mongolian culture.
Hip hop as an imported cultural product is a relative newcomer in East and Central Asia, and while it is particularly young in Mongolia, it has experienced rapid and profound changes in its short period of growth. Following a trajectory of popular acceptance similar to that in the US but at a much faster pace, shapers of the Mongolian hip hop community have quickly adapted to and adopted new influences, drastically growing the art’s fan base. Perhaps most importantly, it has served a vital role in constructing contemporary Mongolian identity, proposing a Mongolianness that is historically grounded, that is able to easily keep pace with an ever accelerating world, and that has the potential to act as a cultural bonding agent between Mongols in Mongolia and in China, where the relationship between whom has been, and still is, complex and not without strife.
This talk presents the first of a two-part research project into the hip hop scene among Mongols in Mongolia and in China, and the nature of the relationship between the two scenes. The talk will feature preliminary findings and propose further paths for investigation related to the Mongolian hip hop scene.