PhD Candidate, Anthropology
Faculty advisors: Dr. Falina Enriquez and Dr. Leonie Schulte
Marianna is a PhD candidate in Anthropology who is from dual hometowns of Las Cruces, New Mexico and Laguna Beach, California. She attended the University of California, Berkeley for undergraduate and came to UW–Madison in the fall of 2022 supported by a Graduate School Fellowship.
She studies how hip-hop and other types of music shape national identity and ideas of belonging in contemporary France. Hip-hop has become both a major cultural export and a symbol of national diversity for France, which has state-funded programs that aim for gender parity in the genre, Marianna said. Her research asks why the state invests in these cultural forms and how artists experience that support.
“In France, culture carries moral and political weight: music is treated not only as art, but as evidence of who represents the nation and its values. By examining how artists navigate these expectations, my research shows how intangible cultural practices like music help define who is recognized as belonging, and how national identity is continually performed and contested,” she said.
Marianna’s research contributes to a deeper understanding of how culture shapes social and political life and how societies define inclusion, particularly in moments of cultural and demographic change.
“By documenting how artists experience cultural funding and diversity initiatives on the ground, the project offers a clearer picture of how well-intentioned programs shape real opportunities and constraints, influencing which voices become visible in public culture,” she said. “Through collaborative creative outputs and public-facing work, my research makes these dynamics legible to wider audiences and contributes to more informed conversations about the music people encounter in everyday life and how it shapes their understandings of belonging.”
Marianna said her Graduate School fellowship allowed her to focus on a demanding course load during a time of significant adjustment to graduate school.
“The fellowship was instrumental in giving me the time and focus needed to establish a strong foundation for my doctoral research,” she noted.
Since receiving the WARF-funded fellowship, Marianna has secured additional internal and external funding that has supported language training, research travel, and dissertation fieldwork. This includes a Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) Fellowship in 2024-25, which supported Arabic language training for use in Europe to strengthen the linguistic foundation of her dissertation research.