Digital Commons Network^™

Islamic Feminism: A Perfect Match Or A Contradiction In Terms?, Merna Aboul-Ezz

Theses and Dissertations

Gender inequality is a global issue that limits women’s social, economic as well as political opportunities. Fortunately enough, there have been many feminist movements that fight for gender equality and women’s rights. The basis for male domination is sometimes justified by culture, or religion. The problem arises when the oppression of women is being justified on the basis of religion mainly Islam in the Arab countries, for it becomes harder to women to challenge the situation, because it conflicts with their inner faith. This thesis will tackle the issue of Islamic Feminism, a recent movement that calls for gender equality …

The Tutktuks In Maadi: What Is Their Presence Disrupting?, Doaa Ayman Kaddah

Theses and Dissertations

Why is the maneuvering of the tuktuks in certain elite spaces in Maadi a disruption to the fragile and in many ways, imaginary boundaries between people, spaces, objects, histories and narratives? How can one street, whether it is the one where I live or Street 9 where I did my fieldwork, encompass a wide range of lives and worlds that do not "touch"? Why is it ok for the tuktuk to be seen in Arab El Maadi, usually conceived as a lower-class neighborhood adjacent to Sarayat El- Maadi, but when it moves in Sarayat El-Sarayat, it becomes a disruption to …

Birth Control In Context: A Case Study Of Urban Egyptian Women, Farida Ezzat

Theses and Dissertations

Contraceptive choices, as a reflection of agency, inform us about various ways individual women seek particular forms of empowerment, in light of socio-economic, affective, and gender-based constraints. Ultimately, this serves to challenge inflexible conceptualizations of the status of women by calling into question the claim that patriarchy is unequivocally coercive and that women are inescapably disempowered and providing new avenues from where we may begin to rethink female agency and empowerment.

Unequal Citizens: Cairo Between Gated And Informal, Hend Ibrahim Muhammed Aly

Theses and Dissertations

The conception of citizenship which accompanied the emergence of the nation-state, in essence, relates to ‘a territorially bounded population with a specific set of rights and duties.’ Such a conception of citizenship assumes that all the members of the nation have exactly the same set of rights and duties. I am interested in studying Cairo. Unfortunately, it is particularly far from this normative definition of citizenship, as its citizens are not equal. For that reason, I am keen on studying citizenship in practice, as a relation between citizens and state. I argue that state practices, represented in urban planning, are …

Uses And Gratification Of Spiritual And Religious Music In Egypt: A Descriptive Analysis Study, Hend El-Taher

Theses and Dissertations

Media is one important constituent of the culture in a society. Its importance is reflected in the contents it presents especially in religion and music. The way both religion and music are blended and used as a medium to gratify certain needs is the interest of this study. In that sense, the relation between religions and music is examined, how music was perceived by religious figures, what disputes the music provoked, and how spiritual music is used as an intrapersonal, interpersonal, or a mass communication tool to influence the audience cognitively, behaviorally, and attitudinally. Accordingly, a descriptive survey is conducted …

The Displaced As Guest: A Case Study Of The Yezidis Of Iraq And Jacques Derrida’S Deconstruction Of Hospitality, Zachary Jackman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the Yezidi forced migration crisis by applying Jacques Derrida’s deconstruction of the binary relationships of self and the other (ipseity) and host and guest (hospitality). This approach first uncovers how the application of these categories operates in the Yezidi dilemma. Further, deconstructing the classifications then creates a space for thinking of alternative means of considering identity, foreignness, the hospitality exchange, and competing discourses. With over half of the entire global Yezidi population still living as hosted, forcibly displaced guests after three years, these new windows may provide a better opportunity to critically engage with the emergency situation …

The Interpretation Of Islamic Art And Architecture Of Cairo In European Paintings In The 19th Century, Heba Sheta

Theses and Dissertations

After the French expedition to Egypt in 1798, travelers tempted to discover this newly revealed land. European orientalist painters, when in Cairo, encountered an exotic culture. They documented Islamic architecture, as well as religious and social traditions and rituals. Their paintings became as tableaux vivants such as the oriental settings in universal fairs in the 19th century. These painters could be classified into two different groups. On the one hand, a group of painters focused on the documentation of Islamic monuments with their decorative and architectural features. Most of these European painters resided in Egypt for many years, and sometimes …

Unequal Citizens: Cairo Between Gated And Informal, Hend Ibrahim Muhammed Aly

Theses and Dissertations

The conception of citizenship which accompanied the emergence of the nation-state, in essence, relates to ‘a territorially bounded population with a specific set of rights and duties.’ Such a conception of citizenship assumes that all the members of the nation have exactly the same set of rights and duties. I am interested in studying Cairo. Unfortunately, it is particularly far from this normative definition of citizenship, as its citizens are not equal. For that reason, I am keen on studying citizenship in practice, as a relation between citizens and state. I argue that state practices, represented in urban planning, are …

Smoking Behavior In Arab Americans: Acculturation And Health Beliefs, Roula Ghadban

Theses and Dissertations

Background: Arab Americans, a growing population in the U.S., tend to have high rates of smoking and low rates of smoking cessation. Arab Americans and their families are at a high risk for poor health outcomes related to smoking.

Objective: The purpose of this study is to better understand the smoking behaviors of Arabs in the U.S., using the two publishable manuscripts format. The first manuscript is a systematic review of the literature exploring the smoking behavior, prevalence and use among Arab Americans and examining studies addressing the effect of acculturation on this behavior. The second manuscript is a cross-sectional …

Wise Choices? The Economics Discourse Of A High School Economics And Personal Finance Course, Tamara L. Sober

Theses and Dissertations

Today’s high school students will face a host of economic problems such as the demise of the social safety net, mounting college student debt, and costly health care plans, as stated in the rationale for financial literacy provided by the Council for Economic Education’s National Standards for Financial Literacy. These problems are compounded by growing income and wealth inequality and the widespread influence of neoliberal ideology. Although one of the major goals of economics education is to teach students to make reasoned economic choices in their public and private lives and provide the skills to solve personal and social …

Designing For Divorce: New Rituls And Artifacts For An Evolving World, Yang Soon Ju Ms.

Theses and Dissertations

Our interactions with objects build cultural codes, reflecting lifestyles, values, and identities beyond functional expectations. With open connectivity in the contemporary consumer environments, we have access to homogenized material cultures not only for daily activities but also for ceremonies and rituals to mark important events, such as birth, marriage, and death. What will happen to our cultural codes and diverse traditions when various cultural norms meet, exchange, clash, hybridize, and evolve?

In this research, globalized material cultures were investigated to discover metaphoric comparisons, to formulate conceptual frameworks, and to develop informed design, which can address evolving cultural conditions appropriately, in …

The Middle Stone Age In West Africa: Lithics From The Birimi Site In Northern Ghana, Agatha Kenda Baluh

Theses and Dissertations

The Middle Stone Age (MSA) began around 300,000 years ago and continued to around 20,000 years ago in Africa. During this time anatomically modern Homo sapiens emerged in Africa. Also during this period modern human behavioral traits appear gradually both temporally and geographically in Africa. This is in direct contrast to “human revolution” theories of modern human origins, which state that behavioral modernity emerged rapidly and quite late in the record around 40,000 years ago. Siliceous mudstone artifacts from the MSA component of the Birimi site in northern Ghana were analyzed using Individual Flake Analysis, helping to highlight this period …

Exploring The Role Of Culture In Online Searching Behavior From A Cognitive Perspective, Sara Chizari

Theses and Dissertations

This research investigates differences in Web search behavior from a “cultural cognition” perspective, which was introduced by Nisbett and Norenzayan (2002). To explore the impact of culture and thinking styles on searching behavior is the objective. The overarching hypothesis is that there are cultural differences in cognitive styles and that these differences may lead into different searching behaviors. The findings help search engine designers provide an adaptive navigation support to users from different cultural backgrounds and cognitive styles. The fundamental research question underpinning this research becomes what are the relationships between users’ cognitive styles and cultural background, and their Web …

A Critical Analysis Of The Effects Of Language Policy, Curriculum, And Assessment On Arabic L1 Student Performance In An Esl 1 Classroom, Juliane Bilotta

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis offers a preliminary analysis into looking at the ways in which Arabicspeaking ESL students are inadvertently marginalized by state standardization, curriculum, and dominant forms of classroom interactions in a NJ recovery program. Specifically, this analysis addresses the absence of orthographic training and a reliance on teacher-fronted, textbook based classroom exercises as a problematic structure that limits opportunities for Arabic-speaking students to participate successfully in an ESL 1 classroom. This data was collected during six-weeks of preliminary research during the summer of 2016 in a Jersey City, NJ ESL classroom. Using transcriptions of recorded data from lessons that typify …

Embodied Madness: Contextualizing Biological Stress Among 19th And 20th-Century Institutionalized Euro-American Women, Madeline M. Atwell

Theses and Dissertations

The late 19th and early 20th-centuries in the United States were periods in which white women of middle and low socio-economic status were admitted into insane asylums at a higher rate than men for the first time in recorded history. An existent body of literature helps us to comprehend the social and cultural climate in which the institutionalization of women was both acceptable and commonplace; yet few studies have paired this research with the information that can be revealed on the bones of those institutionalized. A sample of 53 institutionalized women from the Robert J. Terry Anatomical Collection were analyzed …

Odor And Power In The Americas: Olfactory Consciousness From Columbus To Emancipation, Andrew Kettler

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes discourses concerning odor within the Atlantic World from approximately 1492 until 1838. Numerous historians and philosophers have described how the Reformation’s emphasis on texts and an increased concentration on visual science during the Enlightenment influenced Western Europeans to heighten the importance of the eye to the detriment of the lower sense of smell. This dissertation begins by thinking about materialist contours of this olfactory decline through a linguistic analysis of sulfur within seventeenth century England. It then proceeds to examine how in the early Americas such a repudiation of the sense of smell did not occur. The …

Rebirth Of The House Museum: Commemorating Reconstruction At The Woodrow Wilson Family Home, Jennifer Whitmer Taylor

Theses and Dissertations

Rebirth of a House Museum traces the transformation of the Woodrow Wilson Family Home (WWFH) in Columbia, South Carolina from an eighty year-old presidential shrine to the nation’s first museum of Reconstruction. A semi-guided house tour with limited objects and grounded in a specific time and place modernized an outdated historic house museum (HHM). The house became the primary artifact, supported by a panel exhibit and five original Wilson family objects. Critical to the exhibit’s success were the docents, who also steer this manuscript via their oral histories and fill a void in public history literature. Like Reconstruction, the reinterpretation …

Virtual Civic Engagement: Exploring Technology, Secondary Social Studies, And Problem Based Learning With Tpack, Brett Schneider

Theses and Dissertations

Sociological and cultural analysts have noted the reticence of public secondary schooling to recognize and build academic activities around the participatory culture in which adolescents are so readily involved (Jenkins, Purushotma, Weigel, Clinton & Robison, 2009). Despite the Common Core State Standards having required students to demonstrate they can maximize technology to perform a range of skills involving targeted specialized research, organized writing, and visually intentional presentation (National Governors Association Center for Best Practices [NGA], Council of Chief State School Officers [CCSSO], 2010), very few classrooms have followed through. The avoidance and or failure of these educational technology integrations in …

Providing Hope: A Systematic Development Of A Resource Manual For Mental Health Professionals Treating Latino/A Adolescents With Suicidal Ideation, Rebecca Gutierrez

Theses and Dissertations

This resource guide was developed to further cultural competency for mental health clinicians working with suicidal Latino/a adolescents (ages 10-18) based on a comprehensive review of the literature. The development of the resource consisted of three main steps: 1. Reviewing the literature to determine risk and protective factors of suicide for Latino/a youth; 2. Reviewing literature to determine common themes of Evidence-Based Practices focused on addressing suicide for adolescents; and 3. Integrating the literature from both topics to inform the contents of the manual. The resource guide provides the results in a brief, user-friendly format for clinicians to use as …

Chiapa De Corzo Mound 3 Revisited: Burials, Caches, And Architecture, Michaela Ann Ostler

Theses and Dissertations

Chiapa de Corzo Mound 3 was excavated by Tim Tucker under the direction of the New World Archaeological Foundation in July 1965. Mound 3 is located in the ritual center of Chiapa de Corzo, the southwest quadrant. Significant Preclassic and Protoclassic architecture, burials, and caches were discovered there but were never fully analyzed or published. A complete analysis of this mound is necessary to better understand the role of Chiapa de Corzo as a whole and as a regional power. This thesis completes the analysis and accomplishes the following goals: (1) completes the ceramic analysis and classification started by Tucker, …

Examining Trainee Therapists' Use Of Recommended Counseling Strategies For Facilitating Posttraumatic Growth In Psychotherapy With Clients Who Have Experienced Trauma: A Qualitative Analysis, Renée Marie Sloane Alas

Theses and Dissertations

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) describes the experience of positive changes following one’s struggle with trauma. Calhoun and Tedeschi (1999) recommended counseling strategies for how therapists may facilitate the process of PTG within psychotherapy with clients. Because the efficacy of these strategies had not yet been assessed empirically, this study sought to qualitatively explore their use by trainee therapists, an unstudied population in the PTG literature. A total of 9 videotaped psychotherapy sessions conducted with 5 clients at 2 community counseling centers were selected for analysis. Directed content analysis using a coding system developed for this study was employed to analyze therapist …

Active Games: An Examination Of User Engagement To Define Design Recommendations, Pamela N. Martinez

Theses and Dissertations

Active gaming is a form of video gaming that requires full body motion or varying degrees of physical activity to play a game. While active gaming has gained momentum, there is a lack of studies that provide insight on how they should be designed, specifically components of active games make them engaging. This study identifies, analyzes and categorizes specific design mechanics and features used in active games. It answers the question: Which, if any, game mechanics and features can a panel of experts in academia, health and the game industry agree on as valuable and impactful to the construction of …

A Systems View Of Is Governance And It Governance: A Case Study Of The Virginia Department Of Transportation, Bernard Farkas

Theses and Dissertations

A review of the research related to Information Technology (IT) governance reveals that researchers have yet to use systems theory directly as a basis for understanding IT governance; however, analysis of these researchers’ various definitions of IT governance shows a concurrence between these definitions and the characteristics of a system. This case study research adopts a systems imagination to observe IS and IT governance in the Virginia Department of Transportation (VDOT), which has a budget of over $5 billion and over 7,500 employees and has recently conducted a strategic assessment of its IT organization - including IS and IT governance. …

Circling The Reality Of Public Institutions Anchoring Gentrification: An E-Delphi Study Of Information, Culture, And Community Stakeholders Voicing The Way Forward In Detroit, Michigan, Celeste L. Welch

Theses and Dissertations

Information, culture, and memory centers increasingly anchor urban redevelopment projects in historically marginalized communities challenged with contemporary social and economic disparities. This dissertation situated libraries, archives, and museums within a socio-cultural context and examined the role of cultural heritage institutions in gentrification. Librarians, archivists, curators, and community advocates in Detroit, Michigan shared their viewpoints and experiences of gentrification in a legacy city. Using a modified Delphi process, the e-Delphi panel explored the need for assessing policy, service delivery, and programming in a city of color at-risk to gentrification-induced displacement.

This mixed research study used a concurrent triangulation design. A panel …

Shifting The Aircraft Carrier: Why Race Matters In Museums And Historic Sites: An Examination Of Inclusive Practices, Porchia Moore

Theses and Dissertations

This study addresses the increased urgency in the field of cultural heritage informatics (specifically museums and historic sites) to articulate clear methods for inclusive praxis. Less than 10% of all museum visitors are people of color. Coupled with the fact that 80% of the museum workforce constitutes a demographic of white women; with changing racial demographics in this country, museums and historic sites are grappling with how to address and understand “doing” diversity and inclusion in museums. This study is a critical case study of a brand new historic site and museum that is attempting to be wholly inclusive by …

A Functional Analysis Of Yadkin Bifaces In The Middle Savannah River Valley, Jessica M. Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

The Woodland period was a time of changing settlement patterns, social structure, and technology. Increasing sedentism and social complexity begin during this period in the Savannah River valley and triangular bifaces enter the technological repertoire for the first time in the form of Yadkin bifaces. Yadkins are found exclusively in Middle Woodland contexts suggesting they played an important role in the changes occurring during this time. This thesis establishes the presence of the bow and arrow during the Middle Woodland period through a functional analysis of Yadkin and Eared Yadkin bifaces from South Carolina. This analysis shows that the evolutionary …

A Comparative Analysis Of Geometric Morphometrics Across Two Pseudemys Turtle Species In East Central Virginia, Kristin C. Dillard

Theses and Dissertations

The phylogeny of the turtle genus Pseudemys is poorly understood. In Virginia, many turtles have been found with indicator traits of both eastern river cooters (Pseudemys concinna concinna) and northern red bellied cooters (Pseudemys rubriventris). This study explores morphological evidence for hybridization between the two species across three riverine sites in east central Virginia.

Museum voucher groups for each species were analyzed for relative shell height and plastron length. The shape of the plastral scutes and upper jaw were analyzed using landmark-based morphometric software. These metrics were compared with measurements taken from 188 field-caught Pseudemys specimens. …

Within The House Of Bondage: Constructing And Negotiating The Plantation Landscape In The British Atlantic World, 1670-1820, Erin M. Holmes

Theses and Dissertations

My dissertation is a comparative study of the plantation landscape in South Carolina, Barbados, and Virginia between 1670 and 1820 that explores how the built environment (landscape, architecture, and material culture) shaped interactions between enslaved people and free, white workers and slaveholders. Instead of simply the home of the planter class, the plantation house was more than a living space or a work space; it was a workshop for the creation of a distinctly American culture.

The vastly different houses built in each colony reflect the transformation of the built environment in the New World that began during the second …

Broke But Not Without Hope: Exploring Exits From Housing First And Returns To Homelessness, Jennie Ann Cole

Theses and Dissertations

“…he succeeded in giving the impression of being broke but not without hope.”

Nels Anderson, The Hobo, 1923

Introduction: This research offers a thick and rich, multidimensional and situational look, into a Housing First program in Charlotte, North Carolina. This dissertation focuses on individuals who have experienced chronic homelessness who exit Permanent Supportive Housing (PSH) programs that employ a Housing First (HF) model and return to homelessness. The ultimate goal of my research was to address the gap in knowledge service providers have in housing retention for the chronically homeless and to break the cycle of misunderstanding around why people …

Governing Terrorism Through Preemption: A Comparative Analysis Of Radicalization In Three Western Liberal Democracies, Derek M.D. Silva

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, issues related to terrorism and counterterrorism are increasingly being understood through the construct of ‘radicalization.’ At its most basic level, radicalization is most often conceptualized as a transition from “normal,” conventional political, religious or otherwise ideological beliefs towards extremist views and ultimately violence. The process is now adopted by governmental officials and politicians, police authorities, journalists, and even scientists to justify various forms of governmental intervention, such as policing, social and public policy, education, and surveillance. Notably missing from the scholarly literature is a distinctly sociological understanding of the implications of the proliferation of radicalization discourse in …