Principal Investigator:
DeDe Patterson
Partner Organization:
Hope with South Sudan
Faculty Sponsor:
A.J. Faas, Ph.D.
Description:
Many Sudanese refugees who have resettled in the US have actively sought to maintain their unique cultural identity while simultaneously working to integrate into American society through the pursuit of formal higher education and successful careers. One of the most interesting developments within this population is the desire and persistence to have a Sudanese family in order keep their cultural heritage and identity. The process for marriage is economically tiresome, and due to strict immigration policies, often forces each family member to live transnational lives. Systems of trans-continental arranged marriages and married life allows Sudanese refugees to continue their cultural practices, to speak their native language within their home and community, and to create a Sudanese family that could one day return to South Sudan. Despite the economic strain these efforts have on the relationship between husband and wife, they can be culturally empowering to the members in this community and their families that live elsewhere in the world. Even decades after integration into American society, their ties to their homeland and to their people still remain a top priority in their lives. Efforts of resettlement and the attempts to continue cultural and social ties to their homeland despite time and distance is changing the face of the immigrant and the minority American, in addition to altering the role of family in Sudanese culture. The goals of this research are to describe and analyze the practice of transnational marriage and the extent that resettlement in the US is changing the role of women in Sudanese communities.

As a result of her study and collaboration with Hope with South Sudan, DeDe was invited to join the Board of Directors in August 2015.