Chutikan “Gift” Chaikittiwatana, PhD Candidate

Chutikan is a PhD candidate in Critical Music Studies. As of Fall 2025, she serves as a Music Department senator in the Stony Brook Graduate Student Organization and as a member of the Graduate Council for GETSEA (Graduate Education and Training in Southeast Asian Studies). 

Chutikan’s research centers on human interactions with and around music. Her dissertation uses the Thai Royal Anthem to examine the evolution and contestation of Thai national identities from the late 19th century to the present. Her work situates Thailand’s sociopolitical conditions and musical particularities within regional and global histories, including Western colonial expansion in Southeast Asia, U.S. Cold War interventions in Asia, and postwar East and Southeast Asian pop culture production and consumption.

A classically trained pianist recognized by New York Concert Review for her “straightforward but genuine musicality,” Chutikan has performed in concerts and festivals across Thailand, Singapore, China, France, Italy, Austria, and the U.S. She holds a DMA in Music Performance from Michigan State University, where she studied under Margarita Shevchenko and taught secondary piano classes and private lessons.