The MARIAL Center funds a variety of projects that study the forms and functions of ritual, myth and narrative in southern working families, It is based in the Anthropology Department, but includes faculty, postdoctoral fellows, undergraduate fellows and graduate students from across the University.

Graduate training is an important part of the MARIAL Center, which supports students from a variety of disciplines. Sloan Graduate Fellows do dissertation research on problems and areas relevant to the Emory/Sloan Center research program, which include the following:

-Ritual and Cycles of Life
-Food Consumption and Marketing
-Social and Physical Stress as Mediated by Ritual
-Mass Media and Representations of the Family
-Mass Media as a Source of New and Emerging Forms of Ritual and Myth
-Family Narratives
-The history of the emergence of middle-class culture and identity in the South

We also support dissertation research that provides us with comparative data on working middle-class families outside of the United States, and on class-based comparisons of family life that may include data from other than middle-class families.

Sloan Graduate Fellows receive the following support from the MARIAL Center:

* One year of stipend support for regular department course work, releasing department funds for eventual use by the department.

* Stipend funding for an extra year of study during which the Fellow will focus on readings and courses relevant to research on American middle class families.

* Access to up to $10,000 in funds for dissertation research.

* Travel funds for Sloan Network Meetings

Graduate Fellows are expected to participate actively in weekly MARIAL colloquia and other activities and to contribute working papers to the MARIAL Working Paper series.

To apply for a Sloan Graduate Fellowship

· Apply for admission to a Ph.D. or equivalent program in one of Emory's Schools/Departments, and indicate an interest in being admitted as a Sloan Fellow.

· A department may nominate appropriate candidates. Forward names and files to Bradd Shore, Director, MARIAL Center, 413E Emory West, CAMPUS.

· Graduate students at Emory may apply for Sloan Fellowships after their first year of graduate school.

Send a letter of nomination or self-nomination indicating the nominee's research plans and accomplishments, and any appropriate supporting materials. New applicants should send a copy of the graduate application materials and at least two letters of recommendation. Currently enrolled graduate students should include a copy of department academic records, and any relevant student papers/publications.

Review of applications will begin on April 15. All nomination letters, recommendations and supporting materials should be sent to Bradd Shore, MARIAL Center, 413E Emory West, CAMPUS.

For more information, contact Bradd Shore at 404-727-4200, or via email at antbs@emory.edu