Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons^™

Forced Migration: A Syrian Exodus To Germany, Taylor Witt

Journal of Undergraduate Research at Minnesota State University, Mankato

The Syrian Civil War has killed over 500,000 people and displaced over 12 million since it began in 2011. The conflict has resulted in forced migration on a massive scale. Syrian people have been displaced within Syria, to the surrounding Arab states and to Europe. This has led to an immigration crisis in some parts of the European Union. Germany has become a primary destination for these refugees, but nationalist, xenophobic forces have started pushing back against what is perceived to be an invasion of foreigners into their land and their borders. This project examines the sentiments of German citizens …

Without Borders: Culture And Immigration, Oraib Mango

Q2S Enhancing Pedagogy

No abstract provided.

Studio Exploration Of The Customs In Jordanian Culture: Transforming Cultural Misconception To Cultural Appreciation In The Us, Joy Quarmout

Masters Theses

The following research investigates Jordanian customs in an attempt to inform Western individuals about how cultural norms reflect the values that underlie the thought process and behavior of this people group. Through this process, the researcher intends to help people shatter misconceptions that stem from a lack of exposure to Arab culture. Due to the lack of intercultural experiences and understanding of Arabs within the US, there is a barrier of cognition between individuals of Middle Eastern and Western culture. Not only is there a lack of cultural exposure, but also an abundance of negative television and media coverage, leaving …

Home As Love: Transcending Positionality In Leila Aboulela’S The Translator, Ghadir K. Zannoun

Modern and Classical Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Publications

Contrary to hegemonic Western representations of Muslim women as victims of Islam and Muslim men, Sudanese-Scottish Leila Aboulela’s The Translator depicts a Muslim woman, Sammar, whose sense of home and belonging is predicated on her romantic love for her late cousin and husband, Tarig. Therefore, after his death, she feels alienated from her home in Sudan and leaves for Aberdeen, Scotland, where she is ostracized because she is Muslim. While this Muslim identity proves indispensable for her survival and gradual healing, ultimate normalcy and belonging are restored when she reclaims the world of love and acceptance she has lost with …

Conjunctions And Interjections In Modern Standard Arabic, Abdulkareem Said Ramadan

Gettysburg College Faculty Books

Conjunctions and Interjections in Modern Standard Arabic is a grammar for Modern Standard Arabic introducing conjunctions and interjections from the most basic to the most advanced, with drills for each grammatical point. Skill in the use of conjunctions and interjections is essential for acquiring proficiency in expressing relationships of causation, order, time sequence and other relationships among events and ideas.

Each chapter presents the grammar of conjunctions and interjections in clearly organized tables with examples of each use. An additional section presents multiple drills for practice and functional use.

Aimed as a textbook for students for all four years of …

Gaza, William L. Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Gaza (2019) directed by Garry Keane and Andrew McConnell.

An Alternative View On The Roll-Brimmed Hat, Lauren King

SMU Journal of Undergraduate Research

Why does Gudea wear the roll-brimmed hat? Neo-Sumerian period statues of Gudea, king of Lagash (c. 2100 BCE), were primarily designed to convey the leader’s piety before the gods. The traditional interpretation of the roll-brimmed hat suggests that this garment added to Gudea’s pious affect, serving as a humbler alternative to the divine horned-headdress worn by Naram-Sin, the last king of the previous Akkadian period. While acknowledging the less overtly ambitious quality of the roll-brimmed hat, I nevertheless argue that other potential meanings of this headgear have been overlooked. In particular, I take a materiality and haptic approach to propose …

Women's Self-Presentation In Ancient Egypt, Mariam Ayad

Faculty Book Chapters

[nor provided]

Colonial Identity In The Jedaniah "Archive" At Elephantine, Lisa J. Cleath

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This study will consider the materiality of the Jedaniah collection from Elephantine through the lenses of process theory of identity and temporal-spatial discourse. The Jedaniah collection is composed of ten Aramaic documents, spanning at least twenty years in the mid-fifth century BCE. The documents include copies of letters sent and received by members inside of the “Jewish” community as well as Persian-backed authority figures. Since these texts were discovered in 1907, many scholars have discussed their content in relation to their “Jewish” themes, but few have questioned the theoretical frameworks employed for examining the material nature of the documents. A …

In Search Of The Iraqi Other: Iraqi Fiction In Diaspora And The Discursive Reenactment Of Ethno-Religious Identities, Yasmeen S. Hanoosh

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

In Iraqi fiction, the prerogative to narrate the experience of marginal identities, particularly ethno-religious ones, appeared only in the post-occupation era. Traditionally, secular Iraqi discourse struggled to openly address “sectarianism” due to the prevalent notion that sectarian identities are mutually exclusive and oppositional to national identity. It is distinctly in post-2003 Iraq—more precisely, since the sectarian violence of 2006–2007 began to cut across class, civil society, and urban identities—that works which consciously refuse to depict normative Iraqi identities with their mainstream formulations became noticeable. We witness this development first in the Western diaspora, where Iraqi novels exhibit a fascination with …

Socialist Paradise, Sexual Paradise? Meditation On “Why Women Have Better Sex Under Socialism” (2018) By Kristen Ghodsee, Hana Waisserova

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Faculty Publications

Women have better sex under socialism claims title of Kristen Ghodsee’s recent book (2018) that highlights female economic independence as a main factor leading to greater freedom and thus more sexual pleasure for women in “socialist paradise”. This critical approach opens up new perspectives and frameworks to re-consider socialist advantages that benefit women, and it also invites further discussion of the thought-provoking premise of “female comfort and pleasure” in various socio-cultural and socio-economic orders. Though the text serves primarily as a critique of current capitalism, it also explores available frameworks and generates reasoning for current campaigns concerning women’s sexuality as …

Rethinking Stabilization In Eastern Syria: Toward A Human Security Framework, Steven Heydemann

Middle East Studies: Faculty Publications

As the United States faces important decisions regarding its future role in Syria’s conflict, a new Atlantic Council report by Dr. Steven Heydemann, “Rethinking Stabilization in Eastern Syria: Toward a Human Security Framework,” provides important context, analysis, and strategic policy recommendations.

To The Arab Nation: After “Damn You,” You Are No Longer Worthy Of Greetings, Houssem Ben Lazreg

Transference

Translated from Arabic by Houssem Ben Lazreg.

Transference Vol. 6, Fall 2018

Transference

Complete issue with covers of Transference Vol. 6, Fall 2018

Worldwide Waters: Laurasian Flood Myths And Their Connections, Logan A. Mcdonald

Honors College Theses

In various cultures, stories of great floods have arisen, and many scholars agree that the writers of these stories based their accounts on an actual flooding event. However, these narratives vary in characters, plot, and even their meaning to each culture. This thesis examines several Laurasian flood narratives, perhaps the most ancient narratives in Western literature, including those of the Egyptian, Babylonian, Assyrian, Sumerian, and Israeli cultures. These civilizations all rose and existed in close proximity to one another, which makes the historicity of a flooding event more probable. A structural examination of the narratives and a comparison of their …

Syriac Chant And The Limits Of Modality, Sarah Bakker Kellogg

Yale Journal of Music & Religion

A book review is presented for Sense and Sadness: Syriac Chant in Aleppo, by Tala Jarjour. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. 250 pp. ISBN: 978-0-190-63525-1.

Facilitating Community Participation With Palestine Refugees: An Exploratory Study Of Unrwa, Tiffany Rene Baccus

Capstone Collection

Community participation plays an important role in reversing the traditional power dynamic between service providers and beneficiaries. However, the level of community participation facilitated by organizations in their initiatives often varies greatly. This study sought to understand how and to what extent the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) West Bank Field Office can best facilitate community participation with Palestine refugees through its initiatives. Data collection took place at two levels: the strategic and camp level. The strategic level included interviews with a representative from the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Department of Refugee Affairs (DORA) as well as nine staff …

Film Review: L’Insulte (The Insult), Renee Michelle Ragin

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Though the civil war (1975-1990) has long since ended, Ziad Doueiri’s contemporary Lebanon remains embroiled in conflict. In The Insult, a personal dispute between two individuals on either side of an ethno-political divide threatens to reignite national conflict. Under normal circumstances, such a storyline might seem improbable, but the realities of the post-war environment in Lebanon render it plausible. With a series of provocative, if difficult to answer questions, The Insult joins a robust corpus of post-1990 Lebanese films meditating on what, if anything, it means to be “post-war” in Lebanon.

Integrated Mental Health Care In Education For Syrian Refugees: An Exploratory Study, Emily Goldstein

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

Trauma-inducing experiences during conflict can significantly impede the ability to function and effectively learn in the classroom; thus, it is essential to integrate mental health services into the school setting for refugee populations. This study investigated the state of integrated mental healthcare for Syrian refugees in Jordan by surveying Syrian students on their attitudes towards seeking mental health and interviewing educators on their classroom practices. The scope of the study was extremely limited, as data was collected on only 21 students and 5 educators in one school and a number of biases could have skewed the results. It was found …

The Impact Of Foreign Involvement On Political Reform Organizations In Jordan, Sravya Tadepalli

Independent Study Project (ISP) Collection

This paper assesses the impact of foreign involvement on the effectiveness of political reform organizations in Jordan. Through the qualitative analysis of the democratization work of completely foreign-funded international organizations, partially foreign-funded Jordanian organizations, and Jordanian organizations that do not receive foreign funding, derived from several interviews conducted with democracy practitioners in international and local NGOs, political activists, scholars, and others, this paper examines the effect of foreign involvement on organizational strategies, credibility, and effectiveness, ultimately arguing that foreign involvement (and conversely, the lack thereof) has several effects on the way political reform organizations have carried out their activities. This …