Digital Commons Network^™

Parallel Concepts Found In The Thousand And One Nights And Sufi Hagiography, Walaa Kamal Emam Kamel

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that The Thousand and One Nights functions as more than mere populist entertainment; rather, it constitutes a literary corpus imbued with Sufi mystical epistemologies that reflect the spiritual quests and Sufi concepts evident in hagiographical traditions. Through discourse and intertextual analysis of two Nights stories, “The City of Brass” and “The Porter and the Three Ladies of Baghdad,” alongside Farīd al-Dīn ʿAṭṭār’s Tadhkirat al-awliyāʾ, this study demonstrates how shared rhetorical strategies—specifically David Pinault’s Leitwörter analysis and L.A. Paul’s Transformative Experience concept—reveal a narrative and rhetorical emphasis on the metamorphosis of the self from worldly attachment toward …

Law And The (Re)Production Of Class Hierarchies In Egypt, Ahmad Abdelnaby

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis investigates how Egypt’s legal system, structurally tilted toward the elite and constitutive of inequality, has interacted with the country’s entrenched culture of class-based discrimination to produce a legal culture uniquely comfortable with hierarchy. It contends that class-based discrimination in Egypt has evolved from a social prejudice into a juridical condition, one in which the law does not merely mirror inequality but actively constructs and rationalizes it. By examining the intersection between legal structure and Egypt’s entrenched moral order of class-based discrimination, the study reveals a legal culture that no longer hides its hierarchies behind the veil of neutrality …

Lived Experiences Of Limited Sexual And Reproductive Health Education Among Egyptian Women, Nada Abdelhamid

Theses and Dissertations

In Egypt, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) education remains largely absent from national education and youth policy frameworks, reflecting a broader governance gap at the intersection of education, health, and gender policy. This qualitative study explores how the lack of formal sexuality education shapes women’s knowledge, perceptions, and sexual and reproductive experiences across the life course, drawing on in-depth interviews with twelve Egyptian women from diverse marital backgrounds. The findings point to persistent gaps in basic SRH knowledge, early exposure to shame and stigma, and reliance on informal and often unreliable sources of information, which participants linked to fear of …

Two Decades Since Cms V. Argentina: Concession Contracts, Necessity Doctrine, And The Imf’S Impact On Sovereign Economic Governance, Esraa S. Saied Abdallah

Theses and Dissertations

In the evolving landscape of international trade, particularly within the framework of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs), the primary aim has been to promote and protect foreign investment. The 1980s witnessed a notable increase in investment treaties, coinciding with a global shift toward privatization that was significantly influenced by the impact of international financial institutions, including the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank. By the 1990s, BITs had evolved to offer specific guarantees aimed at reducing the risks foreign investors faced in host states. However, despite the growth and transformation brought about by foreign investments, disputes arising under investment …

Scalable And Fault-Tolerant Network Architectures For Real-Time Video Transmission In Industrial Networked Control Systems, Moustafa Awad

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis addresses the challenge of transporting supervisory video alongside time-critical control traffic in industrial Networked Control Systems (NCS) without violating stringent real-time constraints. A simple yet scalable network architecture is developed and evaluated for a plant-level deployment comprising three interconnected workcells with sensors, controllers, actuators, and cameras. The design explicitly accommodates bandwidth-intensive video streams while preserving the responsiveness of watchdog/control traffic. Analytical delay modeling decomposes end-to-end latency into transmission, propagation, processing, and queuing components, and Riverbed-based simulations are used to validate the model under realistic mixed-traffic conditions. A traffic-engineering strategy - phase-shifting supervisory camera transmissions - effectively desynchronizes frame …

Refugees In Egypt: State Framing, Ministerial Narratives, And The Politics Of Representation On Social Media, Habiba Kohail

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines Egyptian government discourse on refugees in 2024, a year characterized by heightened regional displacement and the enactment of Egypt’s first Asylum Law (Law No. 164 of

2024). Using a multidisciplinary framework that combines framing analysis with van Dijk's socio-cognitive approach, the study systemically analyzes how the government construct refugees on social

media and sets the boundaries of their inclusion in Egypt.

The thesis analyzes the Egyptian government discourse on refugees across official social media platforms from January 1, 2024, to December 31, 2024, a period that witnessed an increase in the government engagement in the refugee issue …

Stories Take A Life Of Their Own: Exploring The Metoo Movement In Egypt, Menatallah Salama

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the unfolding of Egypt’s MeToo movement through the stories that emerged in the wake of the 2020 Ahmed Bassam Zaki case. Rather than framing this moment as a rupture or a crisis, it seeks to situate it within a longer genealogy of feminist resistance, digital activism, and everyday acts of speaking out and silencing. At the heart of this work is the question: what does it mean for a story to take a life of its own? Stories here are not fixed entities but rather living actants—capable of forming solidarities, generating intensities, and unsettling hegemonic narratives. Drawing …

Self-Medication And Pharmaceutical Dispensing In Egypt: Practices, Policies, And Regulatory Challenges, Lobna Fawzy Ali Shaheen

Theses and Dissertations

Access to safe and appropriate medications is a critical component of public health, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. In Egypt, self-medication and informal pharmaceutical dispensing have become deeply embedded practices shaped by systemic, economic, and cultural factors. This research explores the complex interplay between self-medication behaviors, pharmaceutical regulation, and healthcare access in Egypt. Through qualitative interviews with policymakers, pharmacists, physicians, industry professionals, and citizens, the research uncovers widespread informal dispensing of prescription-only medicines, driven by high out-of-pocket costs, limited insurance coverage, and high public reliance on pharmacists as primary care providers. Despite the presence of regulatory frameworks, weak enforcement, …

Under The Guardianship: Experiences Of Mothers In Egypt’S El Nayaba El Hesbaya, Hana Khayry

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the intersectional lived experience of El Nayaba El Hesbaya in Egypt. El Nayaba El Hesbaya, operating under Law 119/1952, is the administrative and judicial body responsible for overseeing the financial and legal affairs of minors whose father or mother had passed. Hundreds of thousands of mothers in Egypt have (had) children under the guardianship of El Nayaba El Hesbaya. This research delves into the experience of mothers whose children are or were under the guardianship of El Nayaba El Hesbaya, examining how it shape(s/d) their everyday life as women, mothers, widows or ex-wives, citizens, and legal subjects. …

Journeys Of Emancipation, Struggle, Or Both? Accounts From Professional Egyptian Migrant Women In Germany, Adam Eddouss

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the migration experiences of a group of professional Egyptian migrant women living in Germany. By employing a qualitative approach, primarily through semi-structured interviews, and guided by migration literature, this research attempts to move away from the oversimplistic approach that migration is an ‘either or’ reality. Mainstream migration scholarship, specifically that focusing on migrant women, tends to focus on depicting migration within an emancipation-struggle binary, presenting migrant women either as victims or as heroines. This work, antithetically, describes how migrant women experiences can be complex, highlighting, both instances of strength and struggle. Grounded in the words of the …

Duties To The Self (Body And Mind), Rasha Essam

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis contends that self-duties are of vital significance, representing the obligations we owe to ourselves, and examines them through different life phenomena. Chapter One defends the existence of self-duties against a challenge raised by an (alleged) paradox. Chapters Two and Three then explore two particular self-duties related to the body and the mind, analyzed through the philosophical notions of self-objectification and moral testimony. Each chapter elaborates on these concepts with detailed real-life examples that illustrate how such experiences can undermine one’s humanity—as preserving one’s humanity is a core duty toward oneself. The purpose of this thesis is not only …

Securing Or Securitizing? Unveiling The Role Of Securitization “Audience” In Israel’S 2007 Bombing Of The Syrian Nuclear Site., Dunia Essam Hassanin

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the 2007 Israeli bombing on Syria's Al-Kibar nuclear reactor through the lens of securitization theory, concluding that intelligence served as crucial audiences in legitimizing the operation. Building on the Copenhagen School's paradigm, which defines securitization as the process by which actors build issues as existential threats necessitating extreme measures, this study fills a critical theoretical gap: the underdeveloped role of the audience. While classic formulations focus on public approval, this study suggests a more sophisticated notion of the Political Intelligence Audience: intelligence agencies that validate and operationalize securitization moves. The concept contends that groups such as the …

Exploring Academic Note Taking Practices Of Multilingual University Students: Perceptions And Practices, Alice M. Findlay Ms.

Theses and Dissertations

Note taking is a fundamental academic skill that records information and supports the identification, selection and organization of information for understanding and knowledge creation, yet it is often overlooked in higher education. Research has explored the role of note taking in supporting learning and examined similarities and differences between L1 and L2 note taking. However, few studies have focused on multilingual students in English Medium Instruction (EMI) contexts despite the additional cognitive challenges of managing information across languages and navigating Western-centric academic conventions. This study investigates how multilingual students at an Egyptian EMI university take notes in their learning contexts. …

Comparative Evaluation Of Conventional And Sustainable Concrete Protective Coatings: Performance, Economic, And Environmental, Andro Ebrahim

Theses and Dissertations

Concrete structures are highly susceptible to deterioration from environmental, chemical, and mechanical factors, making protective coatings essential for ensuring durability and reducing maintenance demands. This study aims to compare and evaluate conventional and innovative coating systems for concrete protection across three dimensions—technical performance, environmental sustainability, and life cycle cost efficiency—and to assess whether coatings often regarded or marketed as sustainable genuinely achieve sustainability across these three pillars. Four representative coatings were selected for assessment: epoxy solvent-based, epoxy solvent-free, acrylic water-based, and cementitious. Technical performance was examined through laboratory testing, expert interviews, and multiple real project cases, providing a comprehensive understanding …

Post Tension Losses: A Comparative Study Of Different Codes Of Practice, Hana Moataz Tolba

Theses and Dissertations

Pre-stressed post-tensioned concrete has become a cornerstone of contemporary structural design due to its ability to enhance load-bearing capacity, minimize deflections, and extend span lengths efficiently. Accurate estimation of pre-stress losses is essential for ensuring structural reliability and serviceability over the lifespan of such systems. This study presents a comprehensive evaluation of initial and long-term pre-stress losses in post-tensioned concrete elements, applying and comparing provisions from four major international design codes: The Egyptian Code for Design and Construction of Concrete Structures (ECP 203-2007), the American Concrete Institute's ACI 423.10R-16, Euro code 2, and the Canadian CSA A23.3 standards as detailed …

Perceptions Of Healthcare Access Barriers Among Eritrean, Sudanese, And Somali Refugees And Asylum Seekers In Cairo., Ayan Musa Mohamed

Theses and Dissertations

As the world witnesses an increase in different displacements of individuals for various reasons, ranging from wars, civil conflicts, human rights violations, and natural disasters, refugees and asylum seekers, who are among those forcibly displaced, continue to face challenges in access to health care services in host countries. The topic of barriers to health care has been widely researched, with a large body of literature on refugees' interactions with health care systems. However, there is limited literature on the perceptions of Eritrean, Sudanese, and Somali refugees and asylum seekers' experience with healthcare access in host countries. Therefore, this thesis aims …

Assessing Knowledge, Attitudes, And Practices (Kap) Towards The One Health Approach In Governmental Officers In Egypt, Nour Elsersawy

Theses and Dissertations

Background: the one health (OH) approach emphasizes the interconnectedness among human, animal, and environmental health and requires multisectoral collaboration to address complex health challenges. Egypt faces significant threats at the human-animal-environment interface, including endemic and emerging zoonotic diseases, antimicrobial resistance (AMR), food safety challenges, and vector-borne diseases. Despite established coordination mechanisms and the launch of the One Health National strategic framework (2023-2027) of Egypt, the extent to which oh principles are understood, embraced, and practiced by governmental officers responsible for implementation remains incompletely understood. Objectives: this study assessed and evaluated the knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) regarding the one health …

Proposed Modifications To The Egyptian Concrete Code Based On A Comprehensive Sustainability Assessment Of Portland Cement Alternatives For Climate Change Mitigation, Yasmin Elhakim

Theses and Dissertations

Climate change is a major challenge facing planet earth today. This phenomenon is foreseen to continue to represent a major concern for decades to come. The construction industry is one of the most polluting sectors worldwide and is considered one of the top greenhouse gas emitters. Egypt, in particular, is one of the most vulnerable countries to the adverse effects of climate change. The construction sector plays a major role in Egypt’s economy, contributing significantly to the national GDP, yet it also represents one of the country’s largest greenhouse gas emitters. However, the Egyptian Concrete Code does not enforce the …

Navigating Radical Indeterminacy In The Struggle For A Global Collective Consciousness: The Question Of Eco-Justice And Law Or Universalize The Pluriverse: A Manifesto, More Or Less, Omar Auf

Theses and Dissertations

The processes of interpretation, communication, and re-interpretation leads to the emergence of an approximated collective consciousness, for which it may be struggled and contested by hegemonic. The dominant forces of this contest, capitalism and nationalism, lead to an interdivided world: one that possesses the tools to empathize with each other but is instead leading people to keep their heads down and focus on surviving their own contexts, perceived as existing within different historical times on the same timeline. This leads to legal and justice systems that fail their claim to universality and/or impartiality. Incorporating an ecological lens to justice within …

Egyptian Feminist Critiques Of Neoliberalism, Asmaa Elmalky

Theses and Dissertations

This research examines Egyptian feminist critiques of neoliberal economic policies through a Third World feminist and feminist political economy framework. It argues that neoliberalism in Egypt has produced controlling power dynamics through restructuring labor markets, social reproduction, and legal systems in ways that disproportionately impoverish women, particularly working-class women. The research maps diverse feminist engagements with neoliberal reforms, including structural adjustment programs, privatization, labor reduction, and legal liberalization. These critiques were influenced by the debates between Third World and transnational feminism, the thesis emphasizes the importance of national specific analysis in understanding how global neoliberal policies are mediated through national …

The Indeterminacy Of Customary International Law, Mohamed Diaa Tawfik

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the judicial formation of customary international law and examines how international courts oscillate between interpretive and law-making functions. It analyzes key theoretical frameworks—including Kelsen’s Pure Theory of Law, Dworkin’s Law as Integrity, Kennedy’s radical indeterminacy, and Koskenniemi’s Descending-Ascending Approach—to understand how courts assert and shape customary norms beyond mere state practice and opinio juris. The work concludes that the International Court of Justice and other tribunals increasingly act as de facto lawmakers under the guise of interpretation, advocating the indeterminacy they try to avoid.

Exploring Artificial Intelligence Governance In Higher Education: Policy Design, Implementation And Adaptability In Egypt, Rolane Eissa

Theses and Dissertations

The rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) in higher education (HE) underscores the need for effective governance frameworks that ensure ethical use and academic integrity. Despite increased policy attention, universities face significant challenges in translating AI governance (AIG) principles and policies into coherent, practical practices within complex organizational settings. Existing research on AIG remains conceptual and focused on the Global North. It offers limited empirical insight into how AI policies are interpreted and enacted at the institutional level, particularly in HE systems in the Global South. This study addresses these gaps by examining AIG in Egyptian universities, thereby providing empirically …

Emergency-Use Vaccine Mandates And Bodily Integrity: Assessing The Validity Of Proportionality Test In Legal Frameworks, Eman Hussien Khalil

Theses and Dissertations

Courts confronting emergency-use vaccine mandates during pandemics have revealed that existing legal frameworks are not equipped to handle the emergency context, as seen in their inconsistent description of government measures and their limited capacity to integrate evolving scientific developments on EUA vaccines into proportionality analysis. This thesis argues that when mandates concern Emergency Use Authorized COVID-19 vaccines, courts must abandon the formalistic distinction between “mandatory” and “compulsory” measures and instead focus on whether the practical consequences of non-compliance remove an individual’s genuine choice; where they do, the measure is coercive in substance and triggers the examination of proportionality. Drawing on …

The Role Of Formal And Informal Institutions In Shaping The Challenges Faced By Social Entrepreneurs: A Cross-Country Analysis Between Egypt And Tunisia, Mirna Magdy Saleh

Theses and Dissertations

This study explores how formal and informal institutional contexts influence social entrepreneurs in Egypt and Tunisia; Tunisia is characterized by legal recognition and a framework governing social enterprises, whereas Egypt does not have a legal framework. Both countries are characterized by prolonged political uncertainty and high levels of informality. Utilizing Institutional theory as the main conceptual framework, the study explores how different contextual factors shape the challenges and opportunities faced by social entrepreneurs. Drawing on qualitative data from founders of social enterprises and experts in the field from both countries, this research aims to identify how institutional regulatory voids, normative …

Digital Public Service Delivery As An Institutional Outcome: Data Governance And Interoperability In The Egyptian Public Sector, Waad Hegazy

Theses and Dissertations

Moving beyond technology-centered theories of digital transformation, this thesis examines the institutional and governance factors shaping digital public service delivery in Egypt. It analyzes how governance structures, data governance arrangements, and interoperability frameworks influence the extent to which digital transformation initiatives result in integrated, scalable, and citizen-facing public services. Using a qualitative research design, the study draws on an analysis of relevant policy and program documents and semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders involved in digital transformation initiatives in Egypt. The findings indicate that persistent challenges in digital public service delivery are driven less by technological constraints than by fragmented governance …

The Mind Has A Firewall: An Attempt To Preserve Human Mind Integrity., Sayed G. Batran

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues for the recognition of mind integrity as a distinct human right. It contends that existing protections, such as bodily integrity, privacy, and freedom of thought, are no longer sufficient to shield an individual’s mental domain from new forms of external interference enabled by neurotechnology, artificial intelligence, and pervasive data-driven systems. Mind integrity is defined as the right to govern one’s own mental life—to form, revise, and hold thoughts, beliefs, and desires based on reasons one endorses—free from significant, non-consensual interference or manipulation, regardless of the method used. The thesis first identifies concrete risks and regulatory vacuums by …

Security In The Arctic: The Decline Of Arctic Exceptionalism? Between Cooperation And Militarization, Victoria Berg Hagen

Theses and Dissertations

The Arctic has been understood as a region separated from international relations, where states choose to collaborate and maintain stability (Gjørv et al. 2020: 2). This has led to the creation of the concept of “Arctic Exceptionalism” (Heininen 2019: 226). Currently, the Arctic is becoming strategically important. Furthermore, the region is witnessing militarization and increased international tensions affecting the Arctic states (Padrtova 2020: 38). This thesis analyzes how Arctic exceptionalism, as reflected in bilateral relations (specifically Russia-Finland and Russia-Norway), has been impacted by the Donbas War, the invasion of Ukraine, and militarization in the Arctic by both NATO and Russia. …

Reconfiguring The Category Of 'Sudan' Through The Literary Field: Representation, Disposability, Ambiguity And The 'Magical' In Four Post-Colonial Novels (2002-2022), Mourad Farahat

Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis I shall argue that contemporary African literature, with ‘’both its ethnographic imagination and anthropological complexity’’ (Orock, 2022, p.3), its use of ‘disruptive’ characters, and its focus on the embeddedness of the ‘collective’, the ‘common’ and the ‘vulgar’ in the personal (Mbembe, 2003), may help us mitigate some social scientific limitations on the study of Africa, and may aid us in understanding relations of power within the post-colony. I seek to show how contemporary Sudanese literature has already moved beyond the fixed social categories, lines, and limits which dominate some of the social scientific literature on Sudan. Literature …

A Study Of The Intellectual Property Rights Of Farmers With Special Reference To The Protection Of Plant Variety And The Farmers' Rights Act, 2001, Gomathi R Ms

Theses and Dissertations

Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) confer exclusive rights on individuals over the creations of their minds. Intellectual property is protected through patents, trademarks, copyrights, industrial designs, geographical indications, and other legal rights, enabling inventors to obtain economic benefits and legal recognition from their innovations. These rights provide exclusive usage for a prescribed period and have evolved significantly over the years, sharing similarities with ownership rights over tangible property. As intangible rights, IPR primarily consist of the property element and the object to which that property relates. Among the various forms of IPR, Plant Variety Protection (PVP) rights recognize the creativity and …

Mycobacteria Infection Induced Cascade Of Epigenetic Alterations Promote Training In Bystander Macrophages, Shah E. Jahan Gulzar Mr

Theses and Dissertations

Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) remodels host cell functions to support its intracellular persistence. While the effects of Mtb infection on infected macrophages are well characterized, responses of uninfected bystander cells in the same microenvironment remain poorly understood. Here, we show that Mtb infection triggers widespread epigenetic reprogramming not only in infected macrophages but also in neighbouring bystander cells. These bystander macrophages acquire active chromatin marks, exhibit distinct transcriptional changes, and display enhanced immune responsiveness, thereby increasing resistance to both homologous and heterologous infections. We identify interleukin-1 beta secreted by infected cells as a key mediator of this process. Functionally, trained bystander …