Congrats to MA graduate Sukhi Dhaliwal. Sukhi recently defended her MA Thesis entitled “So, I Stayed”: Narratives in Agency from Punjabi-Canadian Women in Forced Marriages”.
“I completed the Dual Master’s degree in Political Science from University of Lucerne and Carleton University, where I studied abroad in Switzerland in 2019. I successfully passed my thesis defence August 2021 and have been nominated for the Senate Medal. My thesis investigates the complex ways Punjabi-Canadian diasporic women practice agency and restructure oppressive systems while staying in their transnational forced marriage. I moved away from dominant culture-based explanations of forced marriage which categorize women remaining in their marriages as victims and provided a space for Punjabi women to speak to their own experiences. By listening to their narratives, I identify internal and external pressures they face when “consenting” to and staying in their marriages, the complex ways in which they practice agency throughout the course of their relationship, and the heterogeneity that exists in their experiences of forced marriage based off their intersectional identity. My research aligns with my job at Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada, where I contribute to social policy work on family violence.”
Sukhi Dhaliwal