Digital Commons Network^™

The Politicization Of Water: Transboundary Water-Conflict In The Indian Subcontinent, Ananya Gupta

Honors Papers

The Himalaya-Hindu Kush mountain range and the Tibetan Plateau birth ten of Asia’s most prominent rivers providing irrigation, energy, and drinking water to over two billion people across several countries today. Therefore, transboundary water sharing is a constant source of conflict for several South Asian countries that rely on rivers to support their primarily agrarian economies.

In recent years, climate change has drastically increased global temperatures. As a result, the Indian subcontinent has been plagued with extreme riverine flood and drought events.

Climate change-related events like riverine floods and drought, exacerbate the politicization of conflict between nations that share natural …

The Terror Experts: Discourse, Discipline, And The Production Of Terrorist Subjects At A University Research Center, Liam Christopher Mclean

Honors Papers

This thesis examines the production and circulation of discourses related to (counter)terrorism at a university-affiliated terrorism and security studies research center in eastern Massachusetts. Drawing on participant observation, documentary analysis, and interviews with faculty and students at the research center, I suggest that expert discourses of (counter)terrorism at the center traffic in an archetypal construction of the terrorist that I call the “depoliticized radical.” This construction locates the root of terrorism in individual morality and psychology, tending to abstract the terrorist from the political conditions in which they enact violence. I further propose that the depoliticized radical functions as a …

Madrassas: The Evolution (Or Devolution?) Of The Islamic Schools In South Asia (1857-Present), Samir Husain

Honors Papers

This project traces the evolution of the Islamic Deobandi madrassas from their creation during the British colonial period in India to present day Pakistan and Afghanistan. The goal is to argue that these madrassas turned to militancy due to regional political factors. This is done by examining the madrassas in three periods; the British colonial period, the Soviet-Afghan War period, and the years when the Taliban were in power in Afghanistan. Using these eras, the thesis argues that the madrassas were radicalized due to external actors. This radicalization can be seen by comparing the actions of the madrassas at each …