SouthernComfort

For real, though, I suggest Miguel de Unamuno's fiction. His Christian existentialism is pretty explicit in his work.

Easy. Tim Lahaye and Larry Jenkins. Throw some Frank Perretti in there for good measure. Hell, if you're really crazy, pick yourself up a Thomas Kinkade painting.

Tuscaloosa is a nice, Southern college town, as is any in the SEC with the exception of Starkville. The only major problem is having to deal with Alabama football fans. If you really want to get a good Southern experience, try City Cafe or Waysider. They are both great "meat and three" joints that will serve as good field research both for local foodways and for heart disease.

Not to hijack the current topic or anything, but is it appropriate to contact professors before you have your GRE scores? Could anyone give a decent timeline for contacting professors? Thanks!

All, I graduated in May 2010 with a BA in international studies with concentrations in the Russian language and political and economic transitions. I currently work with an NGO in Romania and plan to matriculate in a Ph.D program in the fall of 2012. My undergraduate honor's thesis concerned religious nationalism in Russian foreign policy, specifically with Georgia during the 2008 Five-Day War. I want to continue within this vein of research, but from an anthropological perspective rather than a strictly political one. My thesis adviser was an anthropology professor associated with my international studies program. We developed a very good working relationship and he convinced me that I would fit well into a socio-cultural anthropology program. Given I wasn't an anthropology major, my knowledge of the current graduate scene is limited. Most of my understanding is based off of a few recent conversations with my thesis adviser and what I have read on this board. I would greatly appreciate any suggestions that you might have that would fit my interests. In continuing along the lines of my thesis, I am interested in the effects of religious movements on individual and collective identity formation. More broadly, I am also interested in globalization, nationalism, cultural history, and political history. I am conversational in both Russian and Romanian and could conduct research in both, so East Europe is my preferred geographical concentration. Once again, any help would be much appreciated!