Date of Award
6-25-2014
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Department of Sociology and Anthropology: Sociology
First Advisor
Michael Dougherty
Second Advisor
Maria Schmeeckle
Abstract
Sojourns, or extended periods of time during which people travel and live abroad with the intention of returning to their home countries, are becoming ever more normal parts of the human experience around the globe. In the US, sojourners who travel as foreign aid workers, corporate employees, missionaries, educators, and military personnel and dependents, among others, make up an increasingly broad spectrum of the population. The experience of living abroad is often necessarily accompanied by some sort of identity change that affects how well one integrates into one's host culture (and, conversely, rejecting local customs and norms affects one's potential for isolation within the new host community) and at some level determine how "livable" life abroad really is. Much existing research addresses identity change at the time of the end of the sojourn, but what happens after sojourners return home? How do returning sojourners experience immediate reentry and longer-term readjustment? Additionally, how well do existing models map reentry and readjustment experiences? In this work I make use of multiple qualitative methodologies, including in-depth interviewing and auto-ethnography, to investigate the relative permanence and fluidity of identities, particularly identities changed or created while abroad. retrospective and current looks at the weeks, months, and years after one's return to her or his home country has the potential to build a more well-rounded understanding of how (and even if) we amend, create, and maintain identities based on our social and cultural surroundings.
Recommended Citation
McNair, Jon Benjamin, "Coming Home Hybrid: Returned Sojourner Identity in Everyday Life" (2014). Theses and Dissertations. 209.
https://ir.library.illinoisstate.edu/etd/209
DOI
http://doi.org/10.30707/ETD2014.McNair.J
Page Count
238
Comments
Imported from ProQuest McNair_ilstu_0092N_10314.pdf