Digital Commons Network^™

The Zabaleen Of Egypt: Citizenship Of Exception In Cairo's Urban Sphere, Kathryn Vallis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the relationships between citizenship, space, and the state, using the Zabaleen community in Cairo as a lens of analysis. The thesis argues that citizenship is both an institution and a practice of exclusion. It explores the social, political, and economic exclusions that the Zabaleen experience due to their position in a state of exception.

Conflict Of A Nation, And Repatriation In Collapsed States: The Case Of South Sudan, Emmanuel Bakheit

Master's Theses

The purpose of this paper is to intervene in the discourse about South Sudan’s civil war to express and provide insights into the broader reality of South Sudan’s civil war. This is to highlight challenges for democracy, possible interface in the peace process, and repatriation of refugees and resettlement of internally displaced persons (IDPs). The aim of this paper is, therefore, to transcend the current literature that lacks critical analysis in capturing the true nature of the civil war. South Sudan’s civil war has been portrayed as a conflict of two tribes, Dinka and Nuer. This is the imprecise politics …

Navy Seals - Crossing Cultures: Cross-Cultural Competence And Decision Styles, Robert Newson

Dissertations

U.S. military cross-cultural competence is currently deficient, as Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel assessments fail to explicitly consider aspects related to cross-cultural competence and lack processes specifically tailored to cross-cultural personnel assignments. Researchers, however, have identified eleven attributes that contribute to military cross-cultural competence; this study uses these attributes to explore whether decision styles and demographics correlate with cross-cultural competence. Building on existing work on the attributes of military cross-cultural competence (defined in this study as the ability to quickly and accurately assess, then effectively act, in a culturally complex environment to achieve mission results), I first examined the attribute …

Co-Predatory Rule: International Cooperation With Respect To Cryptocurrency Taxation In Russia And Belarus, Jim Mignano

Hatfield Graduate Journal of Public Affairs

This article presents an example of how globalization and digitization force states to rely on international organization. Examining tax policy with respect to cryptocurrency—an innovative, global technology—the implication is that a state levying taxes on cryptocurrency must turn to international monitoring and enforcement regimes to support effective taxation. Based on Margaret Levi’s theory of predatory rule, I submit a theory of “co-predation” to explain international cooperation with respect to taxation of novel, cross-border technologies such as cryptocurrency. The Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI), an anti-tax evasion framework promulgated by the OECD, serves as an example of international cooperation. A comparison …

Hacking Nation-State Relationships: Exploiting The Vulnerability Of The Liberal International Order, Ray Marie Tischio

Senior Theses

This thesis explores the implications of nation-state cyberwarfare and cyber conflict in the context of geopolitics and international studies. The emergence of nation-state cyber conflict has increased in frequency and severity in the last decade. In order to investigate what renders cyberwarfare a new and unique challenge to specific geopolitical climates and international systems at large, research on state-level cyber conflict within bilateral relationships—all of which cyber activity is significantly prevalent—is presented in the following three case studies: US-China, US-Iran, and US-Russia. Findings of these three case studies are used in subsequent analysis to articulate the specific ways in which …

"The Aftermath Of Terrorism: The Islamophobic Rhetoric Of Donald Trump And Narendra Modi", Joshua Jonathan Somrah

Senior Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to compare the Islamophobic rhetoric of Trump after the 2015 San Bernardino Attack and the 2016 Orlando Nightclub Shooting with the Islamophobic rhetoric of Modi after the 2016 Uri Attack and the 2019 Pulwama Attack and to analyze how the Anti-Muslim rhetoric of Trump and Modi affected the lives of Muslims within their countries and abroad. I argue that Trump and Modi used Anti-Muslim language in the wake of the four terrorist attacks mentioned above for their own political agendas, which resulted in Anti-Muslim political decisions that affected the lives of many Muslims within …

Mapping Ecological Futures: Toward A Cartography Of Climate Justice, Timothy C. Lau

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of climate justice importantly reveals the uneven impacts of climate change. However, existing attempts at mapping climate justice are dominated by nation-state-based approaches, which fail to capture the sociospatial complexity of climate injustice. To address that gap, this thesis explores climate justice through the lens of critical cartography.

The Social Dynamics Of Antibiotic Use In A Large American Medical Complex, Katharina Rynkiewich

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Based on 18 months of anthropological fieldwork, 35 in-depth interviews, and over 360 hours of participant observation with two specialty physician groups, my dissertation is an analysis of the social dynamics involved in antibiotic decision making, prescription, and use at a large North American medical complex in a Midwestern city. Due to the global problem of antimicrobial resistance, hospitals have been particularly interested in reducing antibiotic overuse and misuse. Though the use of antibiotics has long had an impact at the population level, physicians often advocate for additional antibiotic coverage in the individual patient. I examine a policy aimed at …

Parameters Spring 2020: Full Issue, Usawc Parameters

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Parameters Summer 2020: Full Issue, Usawc Parameters

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Military Ethics Below The Threshold Of War, C. Anthony Pfaff

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

From The Editor In Chief, Antulio J. Echevarria Ii

The US Army War College Quarterly: Parameters

No abstract provided.

Estimating Predictors Of Mental Well-Being Through Analysis Of Children’S Drawings: The Case Of Syrian Refugees, Stephanie Smith

Master's Theses

There are currently over 65 million individuals that have been forcibly displaced globally. The cumulative trauma that comes from the refugee experience and exposure to violence has proven to have long-term negative psychological outcomes and thus negative impacts on human capital in the long run. Given that over 50% percent of the global refugee population are children, the ability to efficiently and accurately assess their mental well-being is of critical importance. Using data from over 2000 refugee children in Jordan, I use machine learning techniques to find key predictors of psychological distress, PTSD, and exposure to violence found in children’s …

Horse Power: The Merry-Go-Round Of Kentucky's Transforming Thoroughbred Racing Industry, S. Carolyn Barnes

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores Thoroughbred training and racing in central Kentucky’s “horse country,” the most culturally and economically invested horse racing region in the United States. In recent decades, public interest in horse racing has waned and this sporting industry has intensified the use of biomedical interventions, including pharmaceuticals. This is fueling rising ethical concerns about the welfare and treatment of racehorses and calls for reform, including federal oversight and regulation of the sport. Given these changes and pressures, I have sought to understand what it is like to live and work in this agrarian world. Supported by the Wenner- Gren …

Building Communities: Interpreting Oneota And Mississipppian Interaction Through Paleoethnobotanical Analysis At The Morton Village Site (11f2), West-Central Illinois, Kelsey Olivia Nordine

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Archaeological investigations of social interaction at the community level provide insight into the daily lives of past people and the social structures that guide these community-level interactions. This dissertation uses paleoethnobotanical analysis to examine the nature of social identity negotiation and community at the site-level scale, using data from excavations at the Morton Village site (11F2). Morton Village is a Bold Counselor Oneota and Mississippian settlement in the Central Illinois River Valley (CIRV), occupied contemporaneously by both groups in the 14th century and identified as a multiethnic or multicultural village through the presence of two distinct types of ceramic remains. …

Testing Assumptions On The Relationship Between Humans And Their Environment: Case Studies From Cahokia Mounds, Illinois, Caitlin Gail Rankin

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Many archaeologists argue that studying past human response to climate change can be helpful in informing future strategies to adapt to modern effects of climate change; however, archaeological research is rarely utilized in climate change policy. Much of archaeological research involves forming hypotheses to explain observations of past phenomena. However, the advancement of knowledge requires a back and forth between hypothesis forming and hypothesis testing. I argue that a lack of engagement in hypothesis testing has stalled the advancement in archaeological knowledge on the relationship between humans and their environment. Ultimately, it is this stall in the advancement of knowledge …

Capitalizing On Language: The Political And Economic (Re)Circulation Of A National Imaginary, Joseph L. Flores

Communication ETDs

In interrogating a political propaganda campaign carried out on social media platforms, I argue that the political economic practices of platforms, fueled by an (inter)action of human networks and technological networks, underscore the significance of communicative tactics, the strategic use of language, and user labor that drive political and economic projects. In an analysis that focuses on the discourse of memes used to support a Trump national imaginary, the dissemination of its content and the construction of meaning via user labor on social media platforms, intensifies, strengthens, and emboldens political projects and platform logics that affectively buttress political propaganda.

The …

Cyber Jihadism: An Analysis On How The Cyber Sphere Has Altered Islamic Terrorism, Simon Spangenberg

Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.

The Poetry Of History: Irish National Imagination Through Mythology And Materiality, Ryan Fay

English Honors Theses

The thesis culminates in the twentieth century and yet it begins with the Ulster Cycle, a period of Irish mythological history that occurred around the first century common era. Indeed, since the time frame was before the arrival of the Gaels, Normans, or Christianity, the extent of this mythology’s relevance today is whatever extent it is conceptualized as “Irish.” As such, the first chapter locks onto an aspect that could feasibly transcend time and resonate with modern Irish society: gender. Of course, the epistemological dynamics of gender^[1] in the first-century common era are vastly different than the twentieth century …

Defending Boyle Heights: Visions Of An Emancipated Barrio, Mikayla Torres

Theses - ALL

This thesis explores the nuanced relationships between culture, embodied resistance and gentrification in the East Los Angeles neighborhood Boyle Heights. The barrio this project centers upon, is predominantly Latinx identified, low income, and is currently embroiled in a war against gentrification, not unlike the onslaught of displacement dozens of neighborhoods across the United States are currently facing. Specifically, I explore the agitative strategies and actions of the contemporary, grassroots, direct-action group resisting the displacement imposed by gentrification, Defend Boyle Heights. The project centers on two artifacts— a constitution video titled La Noticia: Boyle Heights se Defiende! and a video that …

Voices Of The (In)Visible: A Gendered Study On Higglers In Downtown Kingston, Jamaica, Reneé Brown

Theses - ALL

This project examines the lived experiences of higglers in Downtown, Kingston, and how they survive Jamaica’s misogynistic capitalist patriarchal society as marginalized Black working-class women. Data were gathered through a series of semi-structured and unstructured interviews, and participant observation and journal entries. My theoretical frame employed historical materialism and Black Feminist epistemological standpoints which include Caribbean, African, and ‘Third World’ feminism, through a gendered lens to deconstruct neoliberal global capitalism in neocolonial Jamaica. My project also assumes that the impact of neoliberal global capitalism that thrives on patriarchy has forced Black working-class women in Jamaican to reproduce a political consciousness …

Privacy For Whom? A Multi-Stakeholder Exploration Of Privacy Designs, Yaxing Yao

Dissertations - ALL

Privacy is considered one of the fundamental human rights. Researchers have been investigating privacy issues in various domains, such as our physical privacy, data privacy, privacy as a legal right, and privacy designs. In the Human-Computer Interaction field, privacy researchers have been focusing on understanding people's privacy concerns when they interact with computing systems, designing and building privacy-enhancing technologies to help people mitigate these concerns, and investigating how people's privacy perceptions and the privacy designs influence people's behaviors.

Existing privacy research has been overwhelmingly focusing on the privacy needs of end-users, i.e., people who use a system or a product, …

Protecting The Image Of A Nation: Jim Crow Propaganda, Kevin Leaven

Masters Theses, 2020-current

This project investigates how the United States Information Agency (USIA) functioned as a propaganda machine on behalf of the United States government at the dawn of the Cold War and the Civil Rights Movement. Drawing from literature on propaganda, public relations, and public diplomacy, this thesis connects 20^th century American propaganda to its roots in public relations, communication studies, and psychology.

The Civil Rights movement exposed the cultural inertia of white supremacy in America for the world to see while American foreign policy makers sought to crystallize a cultural hegemony fashioned after American political, cultural, and economic systems. Although …

St. Ignatius' Quill Pen: Exploring The Orality-Literacy Difficulty In The Spiritual Exercises, Hongchao Qian

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Informed by the work of Walter Ong, in the first prelude of the First Week in the Spiritual Exercises, St. Ignatius of Loyola used an emblematical image, the “prison-cage”, to provide phenomenological accounts for the exercitants to examine the existential situation within. This dissertation explores into the difficulty of being rhetorical in mediating on the existential situation emblematically. I try to understand the orality-literacy dynamic within the Exercises through the theoretical framework of semiotic phenomenology. The Ignatian emblematics can be understood as phenomenological descriptions that asked the exercitants to provide the parts of moral-phenomenological reductions and phenomenological interpretations within …

"We Are Forgotten." Framing Disaster Via Twitter In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Maria: Implications For Social Work Policy Practice, Barbe A. Fogarty

Social Work Doctoral Dissertations

This work presents a comprehensive study of the disaster discourses generated by key social media user groups in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico. Hurricane Maria, the third most destructive hurricane in American history, resulted in billions of dollars in damage and the loss of nearly 3,000 lives. Disasters result in widespread geophysical impacts as well as social, political, and economic upheavals for individuals, families, communities, and nation-states in the storm’s wake. The discourses that emerge on social media are significant in how they frame public narratives in the aftermath of disaster. The social construction of disaster points …

Constitutional War Powers Of The United States: The Founding Prescription And Historical Adherence, Blake Annexstad

Honors Theses

When crafting the United States Constitution, America’s Founders carefully prescribed an institutional balance of the Nation’s war powers between the legislative and executive branches of the federal government. To examine the intentions of the Founders regarding the Nation’s war powers as well as how American leadership has adhered to this intent post-ratification, this study carefully analyzes the circumstances which compelled this balance as well as its application throughout the history of the American experiment. Following an examination of these circumstances and the history of the United States, it is clear that American leadership, despite adhering to the Founders’ intentions for …

Analyzing The Onset And Resolution Of Nonstate Conflict In The Middle East & North Africa, Emily A. Barbaro

Senior Honors Projects, 2020-current

By applying structural-functionalist theories of deviance and opposition, this thesis deconstructs nonstate mobilization in the Middle East, North Africa, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Using data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset, the quantitative analysis interpreted both group and leader behavior in conflict situations to determine factors that influenced conflict onset and resolution. The quasipoisson regression analysis of group behavior suggested that polity and state capacity were both significant predictors of violent and nonviolent mobilization. The negative binomial regression of regime behavior suggested that civilian casualties were the most significant predictor of a government response to nonstate mobilization. Ultimately, the …

A Framework Towards Computational Narrative Analysis On Blogs/Social Media, Kiran Kumar Bandeli

Theses and Dissertations

Social media is widely used to express views and share opinions with others. With the availability of inexpensive and ubiquitous mass communication tools like social media, creating narratives, false information and propaganda is both convenient and effective. Social media users leverage this platform to further their views by framing narratives and participating in online discourse. Almost all events, issues, crises are discussed on social media. Blogs are a good source of data for sociologists and political scientists to gain situational awareness by tracking different opinions, political views, and narratives being shaped. Blogs, unlike other social media platforms, are not regulated …

“You Feel Like You Belong Nowhere”: Conflict-Related Sexual Violence And Social Identity In Post-Genocide Rwanda, Myriam Denov, Laura Eramian, Meaghan C. Shevell

Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal

Globally, the systematic use of sexual violence in modern warfare has resulted in the birth of thousands of children. Research has begun to focus on this often invisible group and the obstacles they face, including stigma, discrimination and exclusion based on their birth origins. Although sexual violence during the Rwandan genocide has been documented on a massive scale, little research has focused on the relational dynamics between mothers who experienced genocide rape and the children they bore. This paper explores the post-genocide realities of these two under-explored populations, revealing two key tensions in relation to identity-building and belonging. Drawing upon …

The Belt And Road Initiative: China’S Rise, America’S Balance, And Latin America’S Struggle, Garrett Bullock

History Honors Papers

This research attempts to understand the evolving relationship between China, the United States, and Latin America. Specifically, it explores China’s rapid rise as a formidable geopolitical power, the United States’ mixed response to that rise, and efforts by two Latin American countries, Ecuador and Argentina, to avoid exploitation by both China and the United States—and, indeed, to even benefit from this mutating relationship. In all cases, historically constructed ideas and strategic interests shape relations among these various actors. Accordingly, this research lays out the historical sources for each of these powers’ central ideas. Then, it connects those ideas to the …