Digital Commons Network^™

Objekt Afarsit Banesor P+6, Mirlinda Osmanaj

Theses and Dissertations

Tema e marrë pët ta shqyrtuar në këtë punim diplome është objekt afarist banesor.Kjo temë mendoj që është mjaft e rëndesishme për banor duke u bazuar në norma dhe standard europiane që mundëson një jetesë më të rehatshme dhe më të sigurtë për qytetaret e asaj zone banimi.Arsyja e zgjedhjes së kësaj temë është sepse konsiderohet si një problem që duhet të trajtohet në një mënyre të veçantë.Në vazhdimësi në Kosovë e posaqërishtë në Istog po ndërtohen shtëpi,lagje të banimit të ultë pa ndonjë planifikim te mirëfillt dhe pa marrë parasysh së në ato lagjje është e planifikuar banim i …

Phylogenetic History Of The Amy Gene Cluster In Catarrhines, Christian M. Gagnon

Theses and Dissertations

This study phylogenetically analyzed 30 AMY-related genes from 11 primates. The results show the gradual expansion of the AMY gene family which could have allowed primates to adapt to various ecological landscapes and maximize energy intake from starch-rich foods in periods of food scarcity.

Climatic Variables Are Strong Predictors Of Allonursing And Communal Nesting In Primates, Alexandra Louppova

Theses and Dissertations

Allomaternal care (AMC) is widespread throughout the primate order, previous studies have focused on benefits and costs to individuals. However, our understanding of environmental impacts on AMC behaviors in primates is still limited. Our study examines how ecology and environmental factors can predict certain AMC behaviors more than others.

Female Leaders: A Re-Evaluation Of Women During The Viking Age, Sorayda Santos

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will re-examine the roles of women in the Viking world. Did Viking women dominate the home or did they participate in activities that have traditionally been associated with men? This thesis will bring together historical data and archaeological excavation data to demonstrate that Viking women were leaders.

The Case Of New Institutionalism: Maria Lind At The Kunstverein München, 2002–2004., Olga Tykhonova

Theses and Dissertations

The thesis focuses on a particular moment in the history of Kunstverein München - the directorship and curatorial practice of Maria Lind from 2002 to 2004, referred to as exemplary of the New Institutionalism. I analyze Lind’s directorship through the lens of the director-curator concept and institution as an “agonistic space.”

A Bite Of The Big Apple: The Anthropology Of Pesticide Use In New York City, Faye O'Brien

Theses and Dissertations

Pesticide exposure in the developing world is well described in anthropology. How pesticide use and exposure is ordered and experienced socially, economically and culturally in Western urban communities is less well studied. The long-term consequences of synergistic pesticide exposure is not easily measurable, which this research addresses through social inquiry.

Deconstructing The Image Of Woman: Video Portraiture And Women’S Performance For The Camera 1972-1980, Olivia Gauthier

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines key examples of video portraiture, a subgenre of 1970s video art in the United States. Through the examples three aesthetic categories are defined: mirroring, masquerade, and disrupting the male gaze. Video portrait works are framed by goals of the Women’s Liberation Movement and Second Wave Feminism.

Expanding Experimentalism: Art And Popular Music At The Kitchen In New York City, 1971-1985, Sarah A. Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores artists' engagement with popular music at the interdisciplinary alternative space, the Kitchen, from 1971 to 1985. It seeks a critical language to challenge institutional frameworks to account for the creative output of artists' bands and the relationship between parallel and hybrid popular music and avant-garde performance practices.

Assessing The Resilience Of Adolescents Who Were Raised In Orphanages In Cairo, Egypt, Noha Emam Hassanin

Theses and Dissertations

Orphans in Egypt face discrimination at school, in the work place and when finding a marriage partner. They also are at risk for developing physical, emotional and intellectual delays as a result of residing in an orphanage. The small amount of research conducted on orphans in Egypt has focused on these deficits and the hardships. However, it may be more empowering and more effective to focus on the strengths and capabilities of these youth. In particular, during adolescence when Egyptian orphans must leave their institutions, it is especially important to understand how to support resilience and give them the tools …

Nonviolent Jihad: An Immanent Critique, John Roedel

Theses and Dissertations

In pursuit of radical democracy, against the juggernaut of modern liberalism, this thesis attempts an unusual resuscitation of an Islamic nonviolence by engaging in bridge-building and mutual translation between the principled nonviolence of Mahatma Gandhi and the so-called "political Islam" of Sayyid Qutb. By means of the method of immanent critique, this thesis employs the "anthropological skepticism" of Talal Asad to critique the secularist notions of agency employed by these seminal and polarizing figures, revealing the centrality of "lack" to both ideologies. It otherwise self-consciously adopts the essentialisms used by and against these ideologies to attempt to lay the groundwork …

Through The Keyhole: Ethnographic Analysis Of Cyber Violence In Egypt, Radwa Fouda

Theses and Dissertations

Internet has long existed in Egypt, however sudden scholarly interest came after the 2011 revolution. The global scholarly body tended to couple internet accessibility to the so-called Arab-spring, without studying the other forms and politics of internet as an evolution, and almost none have delved in the dungeons of Cyber violence in the MENA Region, needless to say in Egypt. It focuses mainly on individual-to-individual perpetration of violence, how, when and why people variably define unsolicited intervention with their data as "violence", and how, when and why, they choose other notions to define such incident(s). By doing so, it opens …

Pragmatic Functions Of Political Humor Used By Egyptian Facebook Users, Shereen Elshindy

Theses and Dissertations

Political humor has always been a powerful tool to convey messages of resistance, criticism, sarcasm, etc. The growth of digital tools and social networking sites has provided a new platform for the creation and sharing of political humor. This study explores the functions of political humor employed by Egyptian users of Facebook (FB) in reaction to a number of political events and difficult circumstances through investigating the pragmatic functions of a number of humorous posts published on two satirical public FB pages /portō ṭora min ʔajlika ʔant/ and /sōbar faʃxa/. Fifty-nine posts have been selected for analysis. The selected posts …

Repertoires Of Contention Between The Regime And Political Actors, Ereny Zarif

Theses and Dissertations

While most of the literature in post-revolutionary Egypt focused on the international spread of repertoires of contention, protesting, organizing and mobilizing techniques, this thesis aims at drawing links between political action before and after the 2011 uprising through studying 1) the influence of regime's tactics on revolutionary's techniques and 2) political actors’ reactions to the existing structures. Building a bridge between both aisles, regime and actors, and studying them as part of the same construction is crucial. Protesters did not only get affected by international repertoires of contention or local ones, but they were also influenced by the authoritarian regime's …

The Geometry Of Social Networks, Daniel Mackisack

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is primarily about the impact of the Egyptian revolution on the social realities of those who experienced it. How it changed their lives and how it reshaped society. It looks at the relationship between the geometry of the social in Cairo and the experience of political events and regime changes in Egypt between 2010 and 2016, drawing from the individual assemblages and narratives of participants and their associations with diverse people and places. It covers a period beginning prior to the revolution on January 25th 2011 and concludes in the more recent post-revolutionary period. Individual participants were surveyed …

Rooftop Recipes For Relating: Ecologies Of Humans, Animals, And Life, Noha Fikry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the particularly lively rooftops of Cairo through which interspecies intimacies unfold. On these rooftops, various animals (such as chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys, goats, and rabbits) are raised to be later eaten and consumed for sustenance. Throughout the various thesis chapters, I try and expose the various patterned modalities, terms, and codes bringing these different species together in their sustained long-term relationships. I follow these interspecies relations as they narrate wonders of life-and-death, collaborations, various instantiations of home, social gift exchanges, marital rituals, and grieving patterns. These relations involve different tasks, requiring a very specific and complex gendered …

Dawsha W Al-Qāhirah: Listening To Power And Possibilities In Cairo’S Everyday, Noor Salama

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the notion of 'dawsha' (an Arabic word, indicating noise or sound out of place) as an order-word that stratifies social worlds in Cairo and marks and crystallises differences within aural taxonomies along various axes of difference and marginalisation. It also investigates dawsha as a space and a site for resistance, and for the making and unmaking of relationships in contemporary Cairo.

The Death Penalty In Contemporary Egypt: States, Murderers, And State Murderers, Amira Mahmoud Othman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an ethnography of the encounters between figures of the state and some death row detainees and their family members. The project explores what it means to be sentenced to death and executed in contemporary death row cases, what fantasies encounters with the ‘state’ imply or satisfy, and how time unfolds throughout the murder. As such, in exploring the genealogy and bureaucratization of murder, this ethnography problematizes the official discourses of abstraction, efficacy, and sanitization around the penalty. Instead, it focuses on the everydayness of the penalty within the legal and penal systems, and draws heavily on the …

Cross-Mediterranean Egyptian Migrants: A Discursive Analysis, Sara Hussein

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how the Egyptian migrant subject who chooses to cross the Mediterranean through irregular means to reach Europe is discursively constructed in Egyptian media, particularly in the wake of the 2016 Rashid boat sinking. In both official and public discourse, this highly visible and well-documented accident raised questions on accountability and the role of the state in this situation. By identifying and analyzing the themes represented throughout a diverse collected fieldwork corpus of various Egyptian media, statements by public officials and organizations, newspaper articles and editorials, television talk show programming, and popular cultural production, this thesis offers a …

Reconstructing The Demographic History Of The Critically Endangered Black-And-White Ruffed Lemur (Varecia Variegata) In Ranomafana National Park, Aparna Chandrashekar

Theses and Dissertations

Due to heavy fragmentation of their remaining range, the Critically Endangered black-and-white ruffed lemur (Varecia variegata) is facing catastrophic population declines. Skyline analyses at Ranomafana National Park show the ruffed lemur effective population size declining by 84% starting around 1,500 years ago.

Hrísheimar: Fish Consumption Patterns, Wendi K. Coleman

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I examine the fish remain patterns at Hrísheimar, which have provided archaeologists with further evidence that inland sites such as those in the Mývatnssveit Region utilized both local freshwater and marine fish from the coastal regions as a part of their subsistence pattern.

“The Ground On Which I Stand” Healing Queer Trauma Through Performance: Crafting A Solo Performance Through The Investigation Of Ritual Poetic Drama Within The African Continuum, Ashley W. Grantham

Theses and Dissertations

“The Ground On Which I Stand”

Healing Queer Trauma through Performance:

Crafting a Solo Performance through the investigation of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum.

By: Ashley W. Grantham

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Fine Arts in Performance Pedagogy at Virginia Commonwealth University

Virginia Commonwealth University

April 16^th, 2019

Thesis Adjudicator: Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates

Committee: Dr. Keith Byron Kirk, Director of Graduate Studies and Karen Kopryanski, Head of Voice and Speech

How does this method of Ritual Poetic Drama within the African Continuum, by extension, solo performance, …

The Committee On Taste And Leisure, Katherine E. Barrie

Theses and Dissertations

Within my studio practice I have been examining the aesthetics of leisure spaces, the implications of good and bad taste, and what it means to live one’s best life. Considering the history of design motifs and the influence of color upon the human psyche, my thesis exhibition of abstract paintings contains references to patterns, design movements, and modes of artifice that have historically been seen as brazen and tacky. These include nods to the Memphis Design group, faux marble, terrazzo, stucco, and artificial sand. Each has held an important place in the history of designed spaces, and at one time …

A Case Study Of Stakeholders’ Perceptions Of A Principal’S Behaviors That Influence School Climate, Classroom Practices, And Student Achievement In A Title I School, Kristy F. Budny

Theses and Dissertations

Public schools have increasingly transformed throughout the years, and the growth in suburban areas has brought many diversified schools that sometimes mirror schools in an urban setting (Kneebone and Berube,2013). Building principals, particularly those in charge of Title I schools, face numerous challenges each day within their buildings (Kahlenberg, 2001). Not only have the demands of high-stakes testing increased over the years, other external factors also present challenges within the school setting. While the school stakeholders play an integral role in how the school is shaped, the building principal’s behaviors ultimately serve as the overarching guide in shaping how the …

Curators Of Place: Farmers' Narratives Of Sense Of Place And Learning, Matthew Alan Berosik

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation brings forth the idea that our attachment to place and the meanings behind those attachments could be well suited for implementation within formal agricultural education. The focus of this dissertation brings to light multi-generational family farmer’s attachment to the places they grew up and work on, as well as prepare their children and grandchildren to take on the role of ‘curator of place’. Throughout this dissertation, I lay the groundwork for inclusion of sense of place within formalized agricultural education by highlight just what sense of place is and the missing areas within current agricultural education. For this …

Law Of Laughter (Lol), Yakov Smirnoff

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation derived from recognition that in the beginning of a romantic relationship people experience and remember a lot of laughter. If relationship ends there isn't any laughter. It has been proven by research that in the honeymoon stage hormones secreted in our body enhance our ability to meet each other's needs and provide a sense of well being to achieve the desired result, which would be procreation. Once that stage of the relationship is completed, Mother Nature stops supplying hormones like dopamine, oxytocin, and serotonin to help us in the process of creating happy and fun-filled relationships. The purpose …

War On Terror As A "Fight For The Rights And Dignity Of Women": A Discourse Analysis Of The U.S. 'Liberation' Campaign For Afghan Women, Jessica Pacwa

Theses and Dissertations

The events of September 11, 2001 (9/11) continue to morph American identity. 9/11 warranted a frame—a narrative—to explain and assign meaning to the sudden death of nearly three-thousand men and women. The phrase "war on terror" was first used by George W. Bush in an address to Congress on September 20, 2001, and since then, the term has entered into common global lexicon. The strict binaries that confine American discourses in this War on Terror—civility/barbarity, freedom/oppression, Judaea-Christianity/Islam, progress/tradition, the protector/the protected and democracy/tyranny—are not unique; rather, they are rooted in imperialist, colonial, and Orientalist legacies, where narrative often relies on …

Race Matters: A Phenomenological Study Of Cultural Education And Preservation In The Gullah-Geechee Community, Triba Gary-Davis

Theses and Dissertations

Even with the success of the American Preservation Movement and National Trust, most preservation efforts in the United States are focused on sites with patriotic significance favoring the nation’s dominant culture and overlook protecting the land and culture of minorities and indigenous populations (Stradling, 2003). The purpose of this phenomenological study is to explore, through the lens of the Critical Race Theory, the extent to which, if at all, race, racism and environmental injustices impact the preservation efforts of members in the Gullah-Geechee community. This study also explores what programs and activities, if any, that members of the Gullah-Geechee community …

Between The Lines, Yu Su

Theses and Dissertations

Belonging comes from the act of active listening that goes beyond borders of nationality, gender, race, sexuality, beyond the first glance. Listening creates a bond of trust that helps us find understanding and compassion.

I feel I belong when I am listening and being listened to, when both ends extend towards the other and meet half way, when neither part is afraid. I belong thanks to my friends that together have helped me create a home in a multitude of displacement.

Look, listen. Look beyond the images, listen between the lines.

Epic Stories: Sequence Fiction, Young Readers, And The Aesthetics Of World Building, Jordana Estelle Hall

Theses and Dissertations

This study theorizes the world building processes that sequence fiction engages within a framework of intratextual structuralism and cognitive aesthetic stage theory. The study begins with an interdisciplinary overview of fictional and possible worlds theory before proposing a structural adaptation of this lens that explains the developmental, aesthetic benefits of the genre for young readers. Chapter II is an application of the adapted lens to a canonical epic, the His Dark Materials sequence by Philip Pullman. I interpret the intentional structure of the story world across novels to discuss how these engage readers at different aesthetic milestones and encourage a …

Adaptive Acts: Queer Voices And Radical Adaptation In Multi-Ethnic American Literary And Visual Culture, Michael M. Means

Theses and Dissertations

Adaptation Studies suffers from a deficiency in the study of black, brown, yellow, and red adaptive texts, adaptive actors, and their practices. Adaptive Acts intervenes in this Eurocentric discourse as a study of adaptation with a (queer) POC perspective. My dissertation reveals that artists of color (re)create texts via dynamic modes of adaptation such as hyper-literary allusion, the use of meta-narratives as framing devices, and on-site collaborative re-writes that speak to/from specific cultural discourses that Eurocentric models alone cannot account for. I examine multi-ethnic American adaptations to delineate the role of adaptation in the continuance of stories that contest dominant …