Intercultural couples: Crossing boundaries, negotiating difference.

Sociologist and Women’s Studies professor Jill Bystydzienski’s Intercultural Couples provides a nuanced and timely book-length study of couples both heterosexual and same sex, where the members are from different cultural backgrounds and based in the US. The book is based on interview data with people who self-identify as being in intimate relationships that are intercultural, meaning that the relationship members identify themselves as having different cultural identities. Citing the contemporary state of academic discussions about ‘culture’, Bystydzienski acknowledges the complexity in defining cultures as ‘different’ and accordingly also focuses on elements of social location that intersect with culture including race, ethnicity, class, religion, and nationality. The study participants come from the US and 25 other nations from across the continents and include Algeria, Brazil, Burma, El Salvador, Germany, Ghana, India, Iran, Norway, Pakistan, Poland, the Philippines, Russia, and Tanzania (among others). Thus, the study focuses on a diverse mix of intercultural identities.