Near Eastern Languages and Societies Commons^™

The Rhetoric Of Construction: A Comparative Case Study Of The Language Of The U.S. - Mexico And Israel - Palestine Border Walls, Jesse Adam Kapenga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This research examines the language and rhetoric of fear used to justify the walls and fences built by the American government along the U.S. - Mexico border, and by the Israeli government around the Occupied Palestinian Territories. It focuses specifically on the rhetoric used by the head of government of each country (the American president and the Israeli prime minister) during the years 2001-2011 to explain and justify the construction of a physical barrier as a measure of national defense and self-preservation.

Bat Species Diversity At An Urban-Rural Interface: Dominance By One Species In An Urban Area, Jason Philip Damm

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The growth of urban areas is known to affect different species of wildlife in varying ways. Many organisms have exhibited declines in abundance due to habitat loss, while overall species diversity decreases. Bats can serve as reliable indicators of habitat quality and level of anthropogenic disturbance. To investigate urbanization impacts on a Midwestern bat community, I analyzed nine years of mist-net captures from a study area on the edge of Indianapolis, Indiana, where the percentage of urbanized ground cover ranged from zero to 26%, within 1.3-km of a net site. I used Pearson correlation statistics to examine the effect of …

Dearabizing Arabia: Tracing Western Scholarship On The History Of The Arabs And Arabic Language And Script, Saad D. Abulhab

Publications and Research

This book is a reference book on the history of the Arabic Language and script, which goes beyond the sole discussion of technical matters. It studies objectively the evidence presented by modern-day western archeological discoveries together with the evidence presented by the indispensable scholarly work and research of past Islamic Arab civilization era. The book scrutinizes modern western theories regarding the history of the Arabs and Arabic language and script in connection with the roles played by Western Near East scholarship, religion and colonial history in the formation of current belief system, which is an essential step to study this …

Terrorist Or Victim? Comparative Analysis Of The Characters In Jess Walter’S The Zero And Khaled Khalifa’S In Praise Of Hatred, Chloé Tazartez

Re-visioning Terrorism

The characters of Jess Walter’s novel and Khaled Khalifa’s are built as figures of terrorist or victim. According to Bertrand Gervais’ theory, a figure is first of all an object of obsession. The characters of these novels obsess us, questioning our cultural references which permit us to define who represents the terrorist and who represents the victim. Both novels play with these categories, underlining the manipulations of the images through various discourses. This questioning of usual conceptions is built through the use of lost characters, unable to communicate or simply live. These characters illustrate a crisis of the contemporary imaginary …

The Martyr’S Vision: Why The Suicide Bomber’S Eye Is Cast Not To The Sky . . . But To The Other, Hatem Akil

Re-visioning Terrorism

The suicide bomber lies outside the contingencies of religion and the promise of sex with 72 virgins. Instead, her desire lies squarely in the quest for inclusion in the field of vision and to count as a human being. This paper proposes an alternative critical discourse to the question of identity-based suffering and culpability. It aims to raise doubts about certain established notions concerning historical trauma that are thought to be singular, unrepeatable, and the result of fixed dichotomies. Instead, I wish to call for a rejection of the notion of competitive suffering and of culpability as limited to the …

Jihadis And The Use Of The Terms Terrorism And Terrorist, Aaron Zelin

Re-visioning Terrorism

Previous studies on the usage of the terms terror, terrorist, and terrorism have taken a Western perspective on how these terms should be defined and then deployed, but the viewpoint of the “terrorist” (in this case jihadis) has yet to be examined. This study analyzes how jihadis understand these terms and critically assesses their interpretation based on classical Islamic doctrine. The basis and “proof” for jihadis’ legitimization of using terror is based upon the Qur’anic verse 8:60, but when taken into context and traditional understanding, jihadis miss the mark. Yet, at the same time, when exploring the linguistic root for …

Code-Switching And Language Change In Tunisia, Lotfi Sayahi

Languages, Literatures and Cultures Faculty Scholarship

This article quantitatively studies the patterns of Tunisian Arabic/French code-switching and the possible implications for contact-induced change in the Tunisian dialect. The purpose is to account for the extent of the occurrence of code-switching across gender lines and levels of education and assess its role in the interference from French into Arabic, both at the lexical and structural levels. Recorded semi-directed sociolinguistic interviews with twelve speakers are examined for type and frequency of code-switching and use of French borrowings.

Results show that education plays a role in distinguishing the group with a higher education from the group with only a …

Multiple Literacies, Fragmented Identities: Arab Students At American Universities, Gamil Mohammed Al-Amrani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is a combination of ethnography and case study which describes the Social and cultural context of literacy acquisition among Arab students at the University of Arkansas. I examine the power relations that define this minority group in the larger Social context and describe how these relations shape, transform, and sometimes threaten their cultural identities in the classroom. The dissertation investigates the different Social and cultural factors that facilitate or obstruct their learning process, factors such as age, gender, religion, and marital status. It explains how the students' acquisition of literacy exists within a larger dynamic process of Social …

The Mosque As A Political, Economic, And Social Institution 622 – Present, Hope Collins

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

Following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 the Communist “threat” that plagued the West throughout the latter half of the 20^th century all but disappeared and was replaced with the “threat” of Islam. Prior to 9/11 Islam was a largely misunderstood religion and, despite its emergence as a media sensation in the past decade or so, very little headway has been made to better understand it.

Often times this misunderstanding has led to latent, and at times manifest, anti-Islamic sentiment and in many cases this anti-Islamic sentiment has been directed at the mosque as the physical embodiment of …

The Last Of The Rephaim: Conquest And Cataclysm In The Heroic Ages Of Ancient Israel, Brian R. Doak

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

This dissertation explores the role of giants in the narrative and historiographic worlds of symbol, geography, and religion in ancient Israel. The Nephilim, Anaqim, Rephaim, Emim, Zamzumim/Zuzim, some Gibborim, and other individuals (e.g., Goliath) can all be classified as “giants”—not only with respect to their height and other physical properties, but also with respect to the negative moral qualities assigned to giants in antiquity. Previous interpreters have treated giants as merely a fantastical prop against which God’s agents emerge victorious. I argue that giants are a theologically and historiographically generative group, through which we gain insight into central aspects of …

Media Bias In Covering The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict: With A Case Study Of Bbc Coverage And Its Foundation Of Impartiality, Gerard Mctigue

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

In 2009 I began a long process of researching allegations made against the British Broadcasting Corporation and its media coverage of the Israeli Palestinian Conflict. Stemming from courses on European society and politics as well as a summer program examining the British Government’s relationship with the media, I took an immediate interest in the BBC. I was then fortunate enough to know a professor from abroad who worked with the BBC and through his connections I was able to interview a plethora of employees from the Corporation.

The former correspondent from Jerusalem, the Editor of BBC Online Middle East, an …

Philosophy, Science, And Belles-Lettres In Syriac And Christian Arabic Literature: A Gentle Introduction And Survey, Adam C. Mccollum

HMML Lectures

It might be assumed that the genres of Syriac and Christian Arabic literature are made up exclusively (or almost so) of sacred topics (Bible, commentary, liturgy, asceticism, hagiography, theology, etc.), the writers, scribes, and readers in these communities often being monks, presbyters, deacons, and bishops. A broad look at the surviving evidence of this literature, however, shows an immense interest in subjects not directly connected to the church, monastery, or Christian life at all, among them philosophy, science, and belles-lettres. This paper offers a basic overview of these subjects as Syriac and Christian Arabic authors dealt with them, especially from …

A Review Of "Islam Without Extremes: A Muslim Case For Liberty", Fethi Keles

Anthropology - All Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Funerary Iconography On An Infant Burial Jar From Ashkelon, Brian R. Doak, Kathleen Birney

Faculty Publications - George Fox School of Theology

The 2007 season of the Leon Levy Expedition to Ashkelon unearthed a remarkable intramural infant jar burial, bearing roughly incised images on both sides. While a number of intramural infant burials have been recovered from late twelfth–eleventh century levels at the site, this jar is the first burial to reveal anything about the funerary beliefs and rituals that might be associated with such practices. The iconography itself is unique within the Philistine milieu, as well as within the broader context of Syro-Palestinian funerary imagery, instead echoing Egyptian funerary motifs. After a brief discussion of the jar and its archaeological context …

Halaf Bead, Pendant And Seal 'Workshops' At Domuztepe: Technological And Reductive Strategies., Ellen H. Belcher

Publications and Research

Almost a thousand beads, pendants and seals have been excavated from the site of Domuztepe over the past decade. This paper is based on an examination of the general typology and technology of this assemblage. Manufacturing systems based upon social networks of decentralised organisation of small production ‘workshops’ are explored. It is suggested that these networks shared a system of sequenced actions according to raw material and finished products. A group of unfinished beads in the preliminary phase of production suggests evidence of batched reduction and finishing strategies that balanced breakage risk with a high level of proficiency. At Domuztepe …

The Evolution Of Islamic Arches Till 1250, Ehsan Abushadi

Papers, Posters, and Presentations

This paper discusses the development of, and influences on, the form of arches in the Islamic period up until the year 1250; using examples from across the empire while charting the development from area to area through time. It starts with the semicircular arch and how that developed into the pointed arch with its varieties. The paper also explores how the shouldered arch developed, leading to the tri-lobed and keel arch. On the other hand, there is no clear development path for the horse shoe arch which suggests that it may have developed in various parts of the world at …

Bab Edh-Dhra', Numeira, And The Biblical Patriarchs: A Chronological Study, Kris J. Udd

Dissertations

Problem. Bab edh-Dhra' and Numeira have been identified by archaeologists as possible candidates for two of the biblical cities of the plain, but their existence in the Early Bronze Age III is too early to match the biblical narrative (Gen 19) by many chronologies of ancient Canaan. This study sought to determine if there is sufficient flexibility in the archaeological and biblical chronologies to make the identification of Bab edh-Dhra' and Numeira with the cities of the plain a viable interpretation.

Method. The range of dates possible for both the archaeological data and the biblical narratives was analyzed. …

Contemporary Arab-American And Middle Eastern Women's Voices: New Visions Of "Home", Abdullah Kheiro A. Shehabat

Dissertations

esponding to an increase in the literary output of Arab-American and Middle Eastern women in the post September 1 ll Attacks, I examined three exemplary memoirs: Leila Ahmad's A Border Passage, Zainab Salbi's Between Two Worlds, and Marjane Satrapi's The Complete Persepolis. This study examines these memoirists' journeys back and forth from their homes of origin to their host homes in the West. In addition to charting how these memoirists break their silence and liberate themselves from authoritarian patriarchal culture and institutionalized religion, I discussed how they construct new feminist identities expressed through the creation of what …

A Little Bat And A Big City: Nocturnal Behavior Of The Tricolored Bat (Perimyotis Subflavus) Near Indianapolis Airport, Jared Scot Helms

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

I captured 16 Perimyotis subflavus on property owned by the Indianapolis International Airport, of those 16 animals I obtained roosting data on all 16 and foraging data on 11 individuals. The goal of this project was to see if a short broad winged bat’s foraging and roosting habits were affected by the fragmentation of habitat due to rapid urbanization. Using radio telemetry to find roosts and to create multi-azimuth triangulation I was able to create data points and place them onto a habitat map inside ArcGIS software. Sampling the size of woodlots available to the bats I was able to …

5 Writing Trouble Spots For Esl Students Of Arabic, Lina Gomaa-Moulds

World Languages and Literatures Faculty Publications and Presentations

Teaching writing to ESL learners has many challenges. Almost everybody knows that students’ first language affect their learning of the target language, in this case English. But, not everybody can really realize how far the first language can affect the learner’s English writing. ESL teachers must study about other first languages of their students to comprehend why the students are making certain mistakes and repeating them. During teaching English to Arabic speakers, there are five common mistakes they make while writing; no surprise, its due to effect of their first language. I will explore the five of them who I …