Near and Middle Eastern Studies Commons^™

Samuel Huntington's Clash Of Civilizations And Its Allure For The Past Thirty Years, Michaela Munda

Departmental Honors Projects

Political scientist Samuel P. Huntington wrote, taught, and advised on United States defense and foreign policy for over fifty years. The 1996 book, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order, is by far the most prominent of Huntington’s works. Though the work pertained to the world order following the collapse of the Soviet Union, his urging to understand factors that would set up the next stages of world conflict seem to hold truth throughout the last thirty years, and even in the present. Huntington argues that culture and identity will be at the forefront of global conflict. …

Secularism In The Arab World: Contexts, Ideas And Consequences, Aziz Al-Azmeh, David Bond

In Translation: Modern Muslim Thinkers

Explores secularism and secularisation in Arab societies since the mid-19th century.

This book is a translation of Aziz al-Azmeh’s seminal work Al-'Ilmaniya min mandhur mukhtalif that was first published in Beirut in 1992. Both celebrated and criticised for its reflections on Arab secularisation and secularism in the modern history of the Arab World, it is the only study to date to approach its subject as a set of historical changes which affected the regulation of the social, political and cultural order, and which permeated the concrete workings of society, rather than as an ideological discussion framed from the outset by …

Queer Political Organization In Israel, And Palestine: Shifting Away From Homonationalism, Tristan Blaisdell

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this project, I present research I have done on the issue of pink washing queer Israeli and Palestinian citizens and homonationalism within Israel and Palestine. I also create an exhibit brief outlining a hypothetical museum exhibit on this topic to be put up at the museum of culture and environment. The first section outlines the history and theory of my exhibit, and a brief personal statement where I talk about my interest in the subject and where I’m coming from before I design this exhibit. My theory is built off concepts of diaspora, home, belonging, queer identity, and intersectionality …

Turkish Public Opinion And Cultural And Political Demands Of The "Kurdish Street", Ekrem Karakoc, H. Ege Ozen

Publications and Research

No abstract provided.

New Balance Or New Front? Egyptian Foreign Policy In Eastern Mediterranean, 2013-2019, Moatamer Amin, Moatamer Amin

Political Science

Since the beginning of the millennium, all the regional energy players in the East Mediterranean had good cooperation with little intra-state rivalry or tensions. The Arab Gas Pipeline was successfully carrying Egyptian natural gas to Jordon, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Egypt had signed agreements to further connect with the Turkish pipeline network, carrying natural gas to the European markets. However, the Egyptian government was facing an internal challenge concerning the normalization of economic relations with Israel. Public opinion was completely against the deal, yet the rest of the Arab Gas Pipeline destinations represented aspiration for further Arab cooperation.

In 2010, …

Retelling Narratives Of Eco-Memory: Settler Colonialism And Carceral Occupation Of The Jordan River, Megan Rose Awwad

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

In this thesis, I retell and reclaim stories that have been shared and passed down within my family and family history in relation to our homeland, Palestine, and more specifically to the Jordan River. I argue that the construction of the dam in the 1960s on the Jordan River, by a zionist state, is an extension of both the settler colonial state and the treatment of the land/rivers as inherently linked with the treatment of Indigenous people. The carceral spaces and geographies settler states create are part of both the destruction of the land and the genocide Indigenous people experience. …

Rawah, Rawah, Brandi Kilmer

TSOS Interview Gallery

No abstract provided.

The Cholera Crisis In Yemen: Case Studies On Vulnerability And Resilience In Sana'a, Al Hudaydah, And Ma'areb, Noor Albannein A. Al-Saad

Honors Theses and Capstones

The largest recorded cholera epidemic in history is happening right now in Yemen, a country which has reported over 2 million cases of cholera as of 2020. Yemen has a history of endemic cholera, but prolonged conflict in the country has led to deteriorating conditions that have triggered massive outbreaks of the disease. The purpose of this study is to investigate the direct and indirect causes of the cholera epidemic in Yemen by proposing factors that may confer vulnerability and resilience in Yemeni governorates. Case studies were constructed for three governorates: Sana’a and the inner municipality of Amanat Al Asimah; …

Spices, Spirituality, And Scarcity: Experiences Of Food And Drink In The Middle Ages, Thomas Nelson

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………………….......3

II. Primary Documents and Headnotes………27

III. Textbook Critique…………………………...37

IV. New Textbook Entry………………………...40

V. Bibliography…………………………………..49

'Massacres', 'Tragedies, ‘Genocide:’ A Critical Analysis Of Differing Perspectives On The Armenian Genocide, Samuel Hugo Willner

History - Master of Arts in Teaching

I. Synthesis Essay………………………………4

II. Bibliography…………………………………..31

III. Primary Documents and Headnotes………33

IV. Textbook Critique…………………………….43

V. New Textbook Entry…………………………..46

Persistence Of Jewish-Muslim Reconciliatory Activism In The Face Of Threats And “Terrorism” (Real And Perceived) From All Sides, Micah B.D.C. Naziri

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

This dissertation concerns how Jewish-Muslim and Israel-Palestine grassroots activism can persist in the face of threats to the safety, freedom, lives, or even simply the income and employment of those engaged in acts of sustained resistance. At the heart of the study are the experiences of participants in the Hashlamah Project, an inter-religious collaboration project, involving Jews and Muslims. Across chapters and even nations, chapters of this organization faced similar threats and found universally-applicable solutions emerging for confronting those threats and persisting in the face of them. This raised the question of whether revolutionaries and activists in general can persevere …

Iran, Diane M. Zorri

Publications

Internet access in Iran is characterized by strong censorship, limited access, surveillance, and widespread state-sanctioned propaganda. The regime in Tehran views internet freedom as a critical threat to its national security (Henry, Pettyjohn, and York 2014). Using an index of variables such as obstacles to access, limits on content, and violations of user rights, the nongovernmental organization Freedom House rates Iran’s internet access as “not free” (Freedom House 2018). On a scale of zero to one hundred, where zero is “free” and one hundred is “not free,” Freedom House scores Iran at an eighty-five, making it the least free nation …

Explaining The Sectarian Violence In The Middle East: A Conflict Analysis Of The Case Study Of Saudi Arabia And Iran, Ahmed Elsayed Eltally

Dissertations and Theses

The Middle East has been rife with conflicts, extremism, and sectarianism in recent decades. Many explanations attribute the rise of sectarianism in the Middle East to the historical divide between Sunni and Shia Muslims, while others attribute it to power or identity concerns. This thesis explores the factors that contributed to the rise of contemporary sectarianism in the Middle East through the case study of Saudi-Iranian rivalry. Drawing on the literature on the history of the Middle East, Islam, theories of international relations, and conflict studies, it underlines how Saudi Arabia and Iran use sectarianism to further their interests. This …

American And Iraqi Prose Fiction Of The Iraq War: Traumas Of The Self, Traumas Of The Nation, Ghyath Manhel Alkinani

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

War is so omnipresent in our contemporary world that the story of war is too important to be left to fiction writers to frame and give meaning for. This dissertation provides an analysis of two dominant patterns in contemporary Iraqi and American prose fictional representations of the Iraq War: the individualistic trauma hero narrative and the nationalistic, collective narrative. I argue that the trauma hero myth that dominates American representations of the Iraq War psychologizes and de-politicizes war experience alienating the victim of trauma by decontextualizing their experience and negating the Other. On the other hand, the sweeping nationalistic narrative …

Stability Through Economic Growth In Afghanistan, Abdul Qadir Khan

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the Afghan public’s opinion to identify the overall direction of the country, whether the country, in terms of economic growth, is moving in a positive direction or not. How do economic factors affect the public’s views on the direction of the country? Based on that, this study finds that economic growth has an effect on the Afghan public’s opinion on the country’s direction.

Afghans are not enjoying stability in their country yet, after the majority of Afghans accepted U.S. military intervention in 2001 and the establishment of the new government to end instability. It was not an …

Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Jorge Baron, Maria Kolby-Wolfe, Kristen Smith Dayley, Twila Bird, Tsos

TSOS Interview Gallery

The Northwest Immigrant Rights Program has been around for 35 years, started in 1984 specifically to help Central American refugees during the mid-1980s, when they were fleeing civil wars. A pro-bono group of attorneys performing "direct legal representation", helping low income community members who are navigating different aspects of the immigration system. NWIRP also engages in "systemic advocacy" which attempts to change systems and policies revolving around asylum and immigration rights.

Moroccan Society’S Educational And Cultural Losses During The Years Of Lead (1956-1999), Brahim El Guabli

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

In this article, I argue that political repression during the Moroccan Years of Lead (1956-1999) engendered myriad losses in the fields of education and culture. However, the scholarly focus on the embodied effects of state violence on former prisoners and forcibly disappeared individuals has overlooked the intangible damages both education and culture sustained during this period. In investigating the imbrication of political conservatism, educational reform and censorship, the article opens a more critical space for the conceptualization of the broader implications of the Years of Lead for education and culture. Drawing on several primary sources in Arabic and French, including …

Empowering Rural Participation And Partnerships In Morocco’S Sustainable Development, Yossef Ben-Meir

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This essay explores the vast potential for participatory and sustainable human development in Morocco. Though Morocco is a country with many diverse resources, it remains burdened by severe levels of poverty and illiteracy, and now growing social discord. There have recently been increased public calls for participatory development programs designed and implemented by and for local people. The essay identifies six existing Moroccan Frameworks intended to initiate decentralized human development programs, and critically examines their efficacy. Ultimately, the purpose of the article is to suggest a new model to implement these Frameworks with maximum impact. The six Frameworks deal with …

Panoptic Vision: Disjuncture, Transgressions, And Imagination In Laila Marrakchi’S Film Rock The Casbah, Touria Khannous

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

This article focuses on Laila Marrakchi’s film Rock the Casbah (2013), which reflects the exchange between global and local cultural and sociopolitical ideologies of a new Morocco. The film highlights the contradictions of globalization as it occurs through disjuncture. Arjun Appadurai’s theory of the world in motion and “a world of flows” provides a relevant framework for this analysis. The article uses Appadurai’s notion of “disjuncture” as a theoretical framework to discuss the dynamics and interrelationships involved in the protagonist’s movement between Western mediascapes as a filmstar and her Moroccan family’s local context. Appadurai’s conceptualization of globalization is crucial for …

Modeling Resilience In Resettled Syrian Refugees With Disabilities, Nicholas Sherwood

Biennial Conference: The Social Practice of Human Rights

Since 2011, the ongoing conflict in Syria has displaced millions of individuals, many of whom are now resettled across foreign borders. The US currently hosts 21,000 Syrian refugees, and of these, at least 5,000 have a form of disability. Furthermore, many US-based resettlement agencies currently experience strain providing the specialized care required by many of these resettled Syrian refugees with disabilities (RSRD) in large part due to austerity measures imposed by the US Federal government. This research project asks of RSRD themselves: given the limitations placed on your care providers, what personal sources of strength do you utilize when you …