Cultural Anthropology
Marianna’s research documents the experiences of women and gender minorities in French hip-hop, examining who is perceived as belonging in the scene and, more broadly, in the French nation. She is particularly interested in how gender, race, ethnicity, and public support of culture shape questions of belonging, as well as how artists navigate barriers and contribute to transforming both the scene and the nation through their music and activism. She is currently conducting dissertation fieldwork in Paris as a Chateaubriand Fellow and affiliated researcher at the Centre de Recherches sur les Arts et le Langage (CRAL) at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), with support from the UW–Madison Department of Anthropology.
She received her M.A. in Anthropology from UW–Madison in 2024 and holds B.A. degrees in French and Music from the University of California, Berkeley. Her previous projects include research on the French popular music of the #MeToo movement, as well as how the music of Italian singer-songwriter Lucio Dalla can serve as evidence of historical processes in postwar Italy. These and other projects are explored on her podcast, Society of Sound, which examines music through an anthropological lens. https://www.societyofsoundpodcast.com/