Digital Commons Network^™

Internet Regulation In Egypt: Outcomes And Policy Recommendations, Sara Eldemerdash

Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid developments the Internet is witnessing, the topic of internet regulation sees itself taking center stage in a rising global debate among many stakeholders. This debate centers around hot topics and fundamentals such as the rights of free speech and access to information, intellectual property, as well as user and data privacy, and security issues. Egypt is no exception; especially after the uprising and mass demonstrations in 2011 and the growing concerns around internet regulation and freedom of expression.

This thesis aims at examining the development process of the current Internet regulation policy in Egypt to study its …

Attitudes Towards Code-Switching Involving Arabic In A Multilingual Situation – The Case Of Accra, Bulukia Abdullah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigated Ghanaians' attitudes towards code-switching involving Arabic and Ghanaian languages in a highly formal religious setting like the Friday sermon. It aimed to offer the perception and beliefs of Ghanaian Islamic scholars and Ghanaian Muslims towards code-switching from Arabic to the local Ghanaian languages and vice versa. Data from 69 Ghanaian Muslims and 5 Islamic scholars from two different mosques in Accra, Ghana, were examined to achieve this purpose. The data was collected through web-based questionnaires, interviews, a Matched-guise test. The study's findings showed that Ghanaians had favorable attitudes towards code-switching from Arabic to Ghanaian languages (GLs) and …

The Integration And Securitization Of Muslim Migrants In Europe, Yasmeen Nawwar

Theses and Dissertations

In its efforts to integrate newly entering migrants into their societies, Europe has established integration policies that negatively impact these migrants, especially those from racialized backgrounds. The policies mask an agenda of securitization against outsiders who are falsely considered to be a danger to national security and national identity. Since the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in the United States, many Western countries, including European countries, began to build a culture of fear against Muslims. Europe began to increasingly associate migrants with problems such as trafficking, radicalization, and terrorism. As a result, Europe began to treat migration as …

The Basha's Tools? Imagining Alternative Justice Futures In Egypt, Farah Ghazal

Theses and Dissertations

The dominant approach to addressing violence against women in Egypt today is carceral, or relying on the punitive instruments of the state to achieve justice (most visibly represented by the prison and police). While carceral responses are perhaps unsurprisingly advocated by state feminism, they are also promoted by what would typically be described as anti-state actors. This paradoxical entanglement takes place during what I identify as the 'carceral moment', a period marked by the intensification of political and social repression and during which incarceration appears more readily available as a solution to remedy perceived problems of governance. I argue that, …

"Four Faces On One Neck": The Tetracephalic Ram As An Iconographic Form In The Late New Kingdom, Matthew Treasure

Theses and Dissertations

In ancient Egypt, the ram was regarded as a symbol of protection, male virility, fertility, syncretism, rebirth, and resurrection, and the Egyptians accordingly associated some of their gods with the ram because of what it represented. The most popular ram deities, each connected with his own temples and cult centers at different geographic locations, were Banebdjed of Mendes, Heryshef of Herakleopolis Magna, Amun-Ra of Thebes, and Khnum of Esna and Elephantine. Similarly, numbers were another important aspect of Egyptian religion and magic, and the symbolic language of numbers manifested itself in a variety of ways in the art of ancient …

Pure And Fresh: A Typology Of Formal Garden Scenes From Private Eighteenth Dynasty Theban Tombs Prior To The Amarna Period, Jayme Rudolf Reichart

Theses and Dissertations

Gardens in ancient Egypt are known from the Early Dynastic Period to the Graeco-Roman Period from archaeological, textual, and pictorial evidence. From this evidence, one can differentiate between simple and formal gardens. This thesis exclusively produces a typology of the S- and Domain of Amun formal garden scenes (the xnty-S-, kAmw-, sS-, at-nt-xt-, and Hrrt-S-formal gardens) represented in the early to mid-late Eighteenth Dynasty Theban private tomb art prior to the Amarna Period (TT E2, TT 39, TT 63, TT 80, TT 81, TT 85, TT 87, TT 90, TT 93, TT 96, TT 100, TT 109, TT 161, and …

Journeys Of Middle-Class Syrian Women To And In Berlin: Modes Of Subjectivity, Possibilities And Becoming, Randa Adnan Bashlah

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is an invitation to dive into the possibilities that emerge in the multiple stages of displacement journeys of a group of diverse Syrian women from a middle-class background, who happen to live in Berlin today, and learn about the displaced bodies' experiences from a personal scale. By capturing the journeys' nuances and trajectories, this study demonstrates how the mobile subjects interact differently and create different attachments with different power structures in the various modes which emerge through the journeys' different spatial and chronological stages. Looking at how displacement adds layers of complexity to the social's messiness and diversity, …

Do The Tactics Of Armed Groups Affect Organizational Behavior? The Case Of Kidnap For Ransom, Tyler Young

Theses and Dissertations

N/A

The Determinations Of Public Trust In The Government Of Egypt: An Empirical Study, Mohamed Elimam

Theses and Dissertations

Trust is a concept that is usually studied in the context of social interactions. At varying levels, we trust our families and friends, we trust strangers who share some traits with us and even trust institutions like banks with our savings and to handle our personal finances. By expansion, political trust, or the public's trust in government as a whole and as individual agencies. Trust in government forms a basis for the legitimacy. High levels of political trust facilitates the implementation of policies with more willing compliance from the public. This is more evident in situations like global and national …

Distress In Disguise: Mattering And Marginality Among Selected Students At Rowan University, Charissa M. Burgos

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to determine the attitudes of low-income, first-generation White students' as it relates to their sense of mattering at Rowan University. In addition to a demographic sheet, data were collected using Mattering Inventory (Tovar et al., 2009).

A Methodological Approach To Utilize Egyptian Colloquial Arabic As A Source For Ancient Egyptian Linguistic Analysis, Ahmed Osman

Theses and Dissertations

Traces of the ancient Egyptian language can still be observed in modern Egyptian colloquial Arabic, which is the form of Arabic adopted by Egyptians as their native spoken language. This thesis aims to better understand the ancient Egyptian language through the analysis of its lexical survivals. It presents a new methodological approach to utilize ancient Egyptian lexical survivals as a source to study the ancient Egyptian language. A selected set of fifty-five ancient Egyptian lexical survivals was computed by matching ancient Egyptian and documented Egyptian colloquial Arabic words having the same semantic fields. While it was generally assumed that the …

The Effect Of National Leaders’ Profiles On Gdp Per Capita, Maha Mostafa Gaber

Theses and Dissertations

A national leader is the policy maker in a country, whose economical decisions hold the power to make a nation either prosper or collapse. Therefore, it becomes crucial to understand the official who enact these decisions. A unique dataset of over 326 world leaders from 51 countries between the period 1972 to 2018 was constructed, building on leader Experience and Attribute Descriptions Database, in order to study the differences in leaders’ characteristics and determine the most important attributes which significantly affect level of GDP per capita. This paper studies the effect of government leaders’ profiles on GDP per capita by …

“Glass Ceilings” And “Sticky Floors:” Multiple Identities Of Female Superintendents And Intersectionality, Lindsey Brooke Mcbride

Theses and Dissertations

According to AASA, “men are four times more likely to serve in the most powerful position in education” (Robinson et al, 2017). That position being the superintendent in public school setting. The School Superintendents Association (AASA) found that less than 25% of superintendents were women (Superville, 2016). The purpose of this study was to examine the influence, if any, that is created by a female superintendent choosing certain career pathways or having certain identities such as the identity of a female, spouse/mother, and leader and how those identities shape her professional identity making her a better fit in the organization …

Using Multicultural Picture Books To Motivate Students And Foster Critical Discussions On Identity And Social Justice, Susan Davenport

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the significance of integrating multicultural literature, primarily multicultural picture books, in culturally responsive book clubs to improve student motivation, foster awareness of one's identity and promote discussions about social justice. Prior to this research, student discourse about their own identity and the nature of social injustices related to prejudice, stereotyping, and racism was limited. Qualitative research was employed utilizing student artifacts such anticipation guides, literature role responses, and reflection journals. Data was also collected from audio recording transcripts of book club and class wide discussions as well as a teacher's reflection journal. …

Similarity Measure Selection And Optimization For E-Commerce Product Matching, Maryetta Morris

Theses and Dissertations

Since its birth in 1979, e-commerce has grown to become a generation-defining phenomenon. There are millions of platforms from which online transactions can be made, and billions of products available for purchase. As these numbers continue to grow, there is an increased need to exchange, process, and store data about these products. There are also services such as review aggregators and price comparison sites that rely on collecting and integrating data from all over the web. When combining data from multiple sources, it is important to be able to identify which references refer to the same real-life product. Product matching, …

The Alphorn In North America: “Blown Yodeling” Within A Transnational Community, Maureen E. Kelly

Theses and Dissertations

Musicians in North America have adopted the alphorn as a tool that builds community, enhances musical training, and interprets the Swiss tradition for a new generation. Meaningful combinations of experiences and identities combine to create a robust relationship and kinship among alphorn players in an intentionally international community.

Collective Memory And Arab Jewish Identity, Maya Yadid

Theses and Dissertations

Within this paper I will explore my Arab-Jewish identity by confronting the historical development of that term. I will look at the ways in which collective memory and photography are utilized to construct images used as colonizing tools to assimilate Arab-Jews into Israel and Palestine after 1948 as part of Zionist Ideology. In an effort to explore productive forms of collective memory, I will investigate the way food and hospitality are used as a vehicle to strengthen this cultural diaspora. I will conclude by discussing my thesis installation in which the gallery is activated by food preparation and consumption, ceramic …

Bernice Lee Bing’S Art And Spiritual Practice, Lin Ma

Theses and Dissertations

Living and working in northern California between the late 1950s and 1990s, abstract painter Bernice Lee Bing practiced Zen, Nichiren, and Nyingma Buddhism. This thesis studies what the visual and conceptual impact of these spiritual practices had on her abstract and visionary paintings.

Student Voice: From Token Participation To Engaged Partnership, Lisa A. Dunn

Theses and Dissertations

The education system is under increased scrutiny, imposed accountability, and transparency while school leaders are expected to seek input from a range of external stakeholders including parents, community officials, organizations, politicians, and businesses to improve schools and increase student achievement (Fullan, 2000). Unfortunately, there is a wealth of untapped insight from key stakeholders and educational beneficiaries, students, who are excluded from sharing their perspectives and ideas in determining school policy and practice (Zion, 2009). Due to their positional lens and unique perspective, designating students as authentic stakeholders so that they have space to participate in the democratic decision-making of educational …

The Impact Of A Writing Center On Retention, Persistence, And Success At An Open Enrollment Campus, Aisha Maunda Williams

Theses and Dissertations

College writing center practices differ greatly from the types of conventional writing instruction students and faculty are used to in classrooms. While conventional college lectures typically lead to a summative assessment in the form of grades based on students’ performance on high-stakes assignments, writing centers are seen as tutoring centers where students can receive more personalized attention in the form of formative assessment practices and a process oriented approach to instruction prior to receiving summative evaluations from lecturers. This study measured whether or not there was a relationship between writing center visits and student outcomes as they related to retention …

About Us Without Us: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Homelessness At The United Nations, Joanna Louise Padgett Herz

Theses and Dissertations

The United Nations plays a major role in creating, changing, and challenging international discourse on social inequities and injustices. Homelessness has historically been an underrepresented social problem within the UN system. To date, no official definition has been established. How has discourse on homelessness been shaped at the UN, if no official definitions have been established? What are the implicit meanings that representatives have used over the years? Homelessness was ignored for many years at the United Nations, and when it was talked about it was described vaguely. How was the discourse on homelessness created and how has is changed? …

Framing A Pandemic: Evaluating Nigerian Print Media Reportage Of China Before And Following The Coronavirus (Covid-19) Pandemic, Ernest Chukwunyere Makata

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the effect of the Coronavirus pandemic on the framing of news about China/Chinese by three selected Nigerian Newspapers, The Punch, The Nation, and The Sun. A total of 350 articles mentioning China or Chinese were examined using the content analysis method to determine the news writers' dominant frames. The research employs the qualitative method. Three frames emerged as dominant in the analysis, the Economic Consequence Frame, the Human-Interest Frame, and the Conflict Frame. The result shows that Nigerian Newspapers paid more attention to China after the index case of COVID-19 in Nigeria. It also discovered that most …

Flatten The Hierarchy To Elevate The Profession: The Need For Teacher Leadership To Reinstate Educators As Professionals, Sarah Wasser

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to discover how flattening the educational hierarchy by creating career ladders for teachers as teacher leaders can help elevate teachers to a professional status and elevate their professional self-perceptions. A historical look at education yields a field that has been embattled by politicians, philanthropists, intellectuals, business leaders, social scientists, media outlets, activists, and the public (Goldstein, 2015; Mehta, 2013b, 2013a). Isolation is an ingrained factor that is inherent in the profession itself. There is very little emphasis on sustained learning and growth. Teaching, like nursing, social work, and other highly feminized fields, does not …

Do We Even Belong In Education? How Male Teachers Of Color Find Their Sense Of Belonging Through Their Teacher Of Color Program, Jason Craig Baez

Theses and Dissertations

Human beings are fundamentally and universally motivated by the need to belong and maintain strong interpersonal attachments with one another (Baumeister & Leary, 1995). Male teachers of color are no different, yet they may not always feel that connection and belongingness in a profession that they are underrepresented. Unfortunately, the underrepresentation of male teachers of color happens in nearly every subject area throughout K-12 education (Vilson, 2015; Waite et al., 2018). The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the experiences of male teachers of color throughout underserved community schools in the United States, who are enrolled in …

How Black Students Experience School In A Predominantly White Suburban High School: A Phenomenological Study To Examine Student Perceptions Of Self-Efficacy, Sense Of Belongingness, And Perceived Educational Opportunity, Kristen R. Andriaccio

Theses and Dissertations

This study used critical race theory to examine the lived experiences of Black students attending a predominantly White, high-performing, suburban high school. The researcher used a phenomenological approach to examine student perceptions of sense of belongingness, self-efficacy, and educational opportunity. Eight students participated in a focus study group, and seven students participated in semi-structured individual interviews. The data analysis showed the students did not experience a sense of belongingness in their schools, but they did exhibit high levels of self-efficacy and felt they were provided the same educational opportunities as other students. Six themes emerged from this study: (a) Social …

Understanding College Student Emotional Functioning During Covid-19, Dominique Marie Giroux

Theses and Dissertations

The novel coronavirus has resulted in mass infection and death. To prevent spread of the virus, colleges and universities shut down and transitioned to remote learning, which mandated all college students to leave residential housing and relocate to a permanent address. Previous literature suggests college students who experienced housing displacement due to a natural disaster reported heightened distress and poorer overall functioning (Davis, Grills-Taquechel, & Ollendick, 2010). Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, college student mental health was deemed a public health concern, however, it is expected to worsen following the outbreak (Galea, Merchant, & Lurie, 2020). Researchers suggest peer support …

An Analysis Of Education As A Moderator Of The Relationship Of Discrimination To Depression, Jeavonna M. Coble

Theses and Dissertations

Racism has been observed as a highly prevalent psychosocial stressor across minorities, and consistently associated with depression across racial/ethnic groups. However, existing evidence is unclear on effective buffers of discrimination to depression. Researchers have hypothesized that education may mitigate discrimination’s effects on negative mental health outcomes. Evidence evaluating education as a buffer on the relations of discrimination to depression is limited. The analysis is further complicated as the evidence linking education level to discrimination exposure is also mixed. Although some studies indicate lower education levels are associated with greater perceived racism, many studies indicate an association of higher education with …

Togetherness For Mission In Catholic Secondary Schools, Jonathan Mangar

Theses and Dissertations

Relationships are central to education, especially in Catholic schools, where love for others is espoused as a core value. Most studies of professional relationships among educators are focused on routines, processes, and classroom standards. The present study aims to expand this discussion into the human, social, and spiritual dynamics of working together toward mission fulfillment. The purpose of this qualitative work was to explore and describe the professional relationships among teachers and administrators in private Catholic high schools in a large metropolitan diocese and to investigate how these relationships led to mission fulfillment. The study incorporated the theoretical frameworks of …

Equity And Access: College Board And The Effectiveness Of The Advanced Placement Program In Five Private High Schools, Cole Malsky

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, the College Board and the Advanced Placement program have pushed for further equity and access for all students (College Board, 2020a). College Board is taking strides to offer students open enrollment to Advanced Placement; however, many underrepresented and low-income students are still unable to access these courses. The College Board and school districts need to continue to study strategies to help close this opportunity gap. To what extent is the College Board working to expand the AP program in private schools to serve more underrepresented students? What impact does the growth of the Advanced Placement program have …

A Case Study On The Implementation Of Disciplinary Literacy With Multimodal Design In Social Studies, John J. Castaldo

Theses and Dissertations

Social studies education provides education researchers with a less common opportunity to discover multimodal instructional methods for disciplinary literacy. During a 12-week period in 2021, four social studies teachers with at least one history course in a large suburban Mercer County, New Jersey school district participated in a case study to showcase how disciplinary literacy can be implemented using multimodal design. Given the existing lack of research on instructional literacy design for secondary grades, this study provides researchers and practitioners with multiple perspectives on how to maximize teaching practices in underrepresented areas of education. Significantly, social studies teachers will thus …