Thesis advisor: Natana DeLong-Bas / The Syrian Civil War and its displacement of individuals has led to a dramatic increase in intimate partner violence (IPV) among refugee women. Statistics display that 99% of IPV survivors undergo financial control and exploitation, making it difficult to leave these toxic relationships. In 2016, UN Women created a cash-for-work initiative in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan intended to provide Jordanian and Syrian refugee women with protection through financial empowerment. The initiative was quickly successful, showing a 20% decrease in intimate partner violence. My research over the past year builds on this logic to explore digital social entrepreneurship as a manner of addressing IPV within the Syrian refugee population in Jordan. I argue that digital social entrepreneurship, ICT startups with a greater social mission, is key to addressing many of the MENA region’s most pressing issues post Arab Spring, as well as beneficial to empowering women. My analysis culminated in a policy recommendation for a cross sectional program to give refugee women in Jordan the resources they need to establish their own digital, socially conscious firms and establish a place for themselves and their families in both the Jordanian and Syrian post civil war economy. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Departmental Honors. / Discipline: Islamic Civilization and Societies.

Given a real parameter-dependent matrix, we obtain an algorithm for computing the value of the parameter and corresponding eigenvalue for which two eigenvalues of the matrix coalesce to form a 2-dimensional Jordan block. Our algorithms are based on extended versions of the implicit determinant method of Spence and Poulton [55]. We consider when the eigenvalue is both real and complex, which results in solving systems of nonlinear equations by Newton’s or the Gauss-Newton method. Our algorithms rely on good initial guesses, but if these are available, we obtain quadratic convergence. Next, we describe two quadratically convergent algorithms for computing a nearby defective matrix which are cheaper than already known ones. The first approach extends the implicit determinant method in [55] to find parameter values for which a certain Hermitian matrix is singular subject to a constraint. This results in using Newton’s method to solve a real system of three nonlinear equations. The second approach involves simply writing down all the nonlinear equations and solving a real over-determined system using the Gauss-Newton method. We only consider the case where the nearest defective matrix is real. Finally, we consider the computation of an algebraically simple complex eigenpair of a nonsymmetric matrix where the eigenvector is normalised using the natural 2-norm, which produces only a single real normalising equation. We obtain an under-determined system of nonlinear equations which is solved by the Gauss-Newton method. We show how to obtain an equivalent square linear system of equations for the computation of the desired eigenpairs. This square system is exactly what would have been obtained if we had ignored the non uniqueness and nondifferentiability of the normalisation.

This dissertation examines the bread subsidy in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. It scrutinizes the socio-political conflicts that surround this policy, the spatial practices that subsume it and the ways in which it is understood and given meaning. Despite repeated attempts by international financial institutions to eliminate them, authoritarian regimes throughout the region have gone to great lengths to maintain this and similar welfare programs, even extending them during the tumult of the so-called ‘Arab Spring.’ This dissertation seeks to answer why. Through the lens of bread, I suggest a new approach to understanding state power, not as the straightforward product of a monolithic entity but as the unstable product of social practices that make the state appear to exist. Building on the work of Judith Butler and Alex Jeffrey, I call these routine actions “performing the state.” The empirical chapters, based on extensive fieldwork in Jordan, attend to how welfare provision not only reflects the state—its capacities, historical development or cultural proclivities—but performs it into being. The analysis centers on how certain institutions and actors, through their imbrication in the social, spatial and political patterns of welfare provision, work to entrench the state—as an idea, a material force and a locus of affective investment—in the lives of citizens. In attending to how the Jordanian state is constituted and reproduced through discourses, spatial practices of reach, moral economies and political rationalities, this study seeks to illuminate the iterative processes of reference that create the appearance of an autonomous structure that both citizens and scholars call the state. By understanding the state as the contingent product of routine performances, we can better examine the disproportionate importance of particular welfare programs to assembling state power and fostering authoritarian outcomes, as well as their links to key political processes and policy outcomes.

This study analyses the authority of Shaykh Ahmad al-Yashruti in Amman, Acre, and Jaffa. He is the master of the Shadhuliyya-Yashrutiyya, a Sufi ṭarīqa (brotherhood) which originated in Acre but is now based in Amman. It examines how the changing religious climate and the challenges faced by the Palestinian people affect the role of the Shaykh and the cohesion of the community. This study approaches both the concept of authority and the practice of fieldwork from a relational perspective, and discusses the challenges faced when doing multi-sited fieldwork using Graham Harvey’s concept of ‘methodological guesthood’. The study analyses how the founding Shaykh’s charisma is maintained in a ṭarīqa which is institutionalised on traditional (kinship) lines, and focuses on the doctrinal, functional and locational aspects of Shaykh Ahmad’s authority by examining the underlying paradigm of authority, as well as the different roles his followers attribute to him, how these are connected to the functions of the zawāya (lodges) in Amman and Acre, and how this affects the ṭarīqa’s place in society and in the arena of ‘Muslim Politics’ (as understood by Eickelman and Piscatori). This is mainly done by focusing on the emic concept of tarbiya (education), which corresponds to Berger and Luckmann’s concept of ‘socialisation’ and Asad’s approach to the transmission of a discursive tradition that is in a continuous process of transmission and reinterpretation through the institutionalised relationship between Sufi shaykhs and followers. The study argues that the process of tarbiya and the mode of communication between Shaykh and follower – which mainly consists of indirect communications and signs to be identified and interpreted by the follower – allows the ṭarīqa to value both individuality and submission to the Shaykh; it also allows it to be centralised, while at the same time adaptable to local circumstances. This thus explains the development of a discursive tradition, the functioning of a translocal ṭarīqa, and the changing position of a Sufi shaykh, enabling us to see that a Sufi movement can be both traditional and innovative.

Shareholder investments declined in Jordanian pharmaceutical business expansion between 2007 and 2014, which included a reduction in the supply of essential medicines in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to explore effective applications of expansion strategies to satisfy demand in the MENA markets among Jordanian generic pharmaceutical companies' managers. The conceptual framework for this study was based on the transformational leadership theory and stakeholders' theory. The purposive sample consisted of 4 chief executive officers and 8 managers from Jordanian pharmaceutical companies who practiced the expansion strategy in the MENA for more than 10 years. The data were triangulated from semi structured interviews and cash flow financial statements. Interpretation summaries of the participants' answers were applied for the member-checking process to bolster the trustworthiness of interpretations. Four themes emerged from the analysis process: leaders' adaptability to change, financial capacity and stability, stakeholders' business awareness, and managers' engagements and knowledge. The findings may provide the generic pharmaceutical business leaders and managers with increased growth capabilities for catalyzing beneficial positive capacity expansion strategies. The subsequent expansion could provide adequate, affordable, and accessible medications for effecting social changes by fighting disease in remote and low-income MENA communities.

Rangelands in Jordan are deteriorated due to a combination of harsh environmental conditions and human misuse. Jordan is importing increasingly large quantities of meat and animal products to meet the demand from its growing population. Sheep are supplementaQ ly fed during the dry season and large quantities of grain supplements are imported every year. Significant success has been attained in the establishment of Atriplex nummularia lindl. (ATNU) in Jordan. There is, however, a general lack of adequate research to determine if ATNU is effectively utilized by local sheep, to what extent it is utilized and to what extent it tolerates grazing. The objectives of this research were to determine the effects of grazing ATNU at two intensities (moderate and heavy) on subsequent production of ATNU browse, and on sheep live weight. Results of this research showed that HNU shrubs are grazing tolerant, they are stimulated by grazing to produce more forage than the non-grazed shrubs. When heavily grazed in the fall, they showed greater compensatory growth than moderately grazed shrubs, but the moderately grazed shrubs gave sustained production better than those heavily grazed in both good and bad years. Sheep grazing ATNU shrubs with native forage (grasses and forbs) in the fall gained more weight at the moderately grazed treatments. The amount of sheep-live-weight gain was positively affected by the amount of food intake per sheep metabolic body weight and inversely affected by the percentage of ATNU browse in the diet. ATNU although less preferred by sheep than grasses and forbs, could probably be used up to 40% of the diet and still maintain sheep live weight. ATNU is a good source of forage especially during the dry season, it provides (with native grasses and forbs) a high-quality forage and may considerably reduce the amount of costly supplements imported to Jordan.

In recent years, countries across the globe have come to realise the importance of an official corporate governance regime, which provides a platform for market integrity and efficiency, as well as facilitating economic growth. Formulating effective corporate governance measures is a complex task for legislators. The purpose of this paper is to provide an in depth analysis and comparison of the corporate governance legislative frameworks in Australia and Jordan. In 2004, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), in conjunction with national and international governmental organisations, finalised a universal set of corporate governance principles. Although non-binding, the OECD Principles 2004 are a serious attempt to strengthen every aspect of corporate governance and, accordingly, have been utilised in this paper as an international benchmark.The ultimate objective of this paper is to formulate a number of detailed and specific recommendations to the Jordanian Government. Jordan’s legislative framework for corporations received a significant shake-up a decade ago when the Jordanian Government began the process of implementing a privatisation program under the guidance of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Despite a number of positive developments since this program was initiated, the Jordanian Government has continually failed to recognise the importance of promoting good corporate governance. There can be no doubt that the Jordanian companies’ legislation is in desperate need of reform. The vast majority of the provisions are ambiguous and lack the necessary detail to regulate the complex sphere of company law. In this writer’s opinion, the relevant authorities in Jordan must act immediately to bring the country’s legislative regime into line with internationally recognised standards and practices. Chapter 1 of the paper sets out an introductory explanation of corporate governance and corporate structure. Chapter 2 provides a brief account of the history of company law in Jordan and a description of the different types of company structures permitted under the relevant Jordanian legislation. Chapter 3 provides a detailed discussion of the corporate governance principles formulated by the OECD. The process began in 1999 and was completed in 2004 after extensive revision and consultation. Chapter 4, the core part of the paper, presents a comparative analysis of the implementation of the OECD principles in Australia and Jordan. Chapter 5 provides an explanation and analysis of two important shareholders’ remedies in the Australian companies’ legislation that do not exist in Jordan. Finally, Chapter 6 provides a summary of analysis and sets out a list of recommendations to the Jordanian Government.

<p> </p><p><em>For Whom the Bell Tolls</em> is Ernest Hemingway's story of the Spanish Civil War. This war has often been seen as a conflict between good and evil, and the novel is frequently viewed as a way of illustrating the brotherhood of man in its portrayal of how Robert Jordan fights as a volunteer for the republicans against the fascists. This essay shows that Jordan actually loses his faith in the war. I instead propose that his determination to perform his mission is regained through Maria, and that he integrates with her as he finishes his mission. Initially, Jordan becomes alienated because he discovers the hopelessness and immorality of the republican struggle. The fascists are really not true enemies, and the republicans seem to have become the very evil that they originally set out to destroy. His faith in his mission is regained through Maria, and the completion of his mission becomes entwined with his integration with her. It becomes clear that she, a character whose thematic importance has often been neglected, is a part of the natural world. By becoming a part of nature, Jordan can thus become an eternal part of her. As he finishes his mission, his integration with nature intensifies. As he awaits death after having finished his mission, he literally becomes a part of nature and thematically a part of Maria, and even though he will die, the lovers are united. This, I suggest, is the complete integration that Jordan experiences.</p><p> </p><p> </p>

Karl Jordan (1861-1959) was an extraordinarily productive entomologist who influenced the development of systematics, entomology, and naturalists' theoretical framework as well as their practice. He has been a figure in existing accounts of the naturalist tradition between 1890 and 1940 that have defended the relative contribution of naturalists to the modern evolutionary synthesis. These accounts, while useful, have primarily examined the natural history of the period in view of how it led to developments in the 1930s and 40s, removing pre-Synthesis naturalists like Jordan from their research programs, institutional contexts, and disciplinary homes, for the sake of synthesis narratives. This dissertation redresses this picture by examining a naturalist, who, although often cited as important in the synthesis, is more accurately viewed as a man working on the problems of an earlier period. This study examines the specific problems that concerned Jordan, as well as the dynamic institutional, international, theoretical and methodological context of entomology and natural history during his lifetime. It focuses upon how the context in which natural history has been done changed greatly during Jordan's life time, and discusses the role of these changes in both placing naturalists on the defensive among an array of new disciplines and attitudes in science, and providing them with new tools and justifications for doing natural history. One of the primary intents of this study is to demonstrate the many different motives and conditions through which naturalists came to and worked in natural history. It argues that understanding this diversity within the views, methods, and priorities of naturalists is not only important to developing a more accurate understanding of the naturalist tradition, but to understanding the ramifications of the complexity in the naturalist tradition for the fate of certain research programs as well. / Graduation date: 2004

Etude descriptive du parler arabe de Salt en Jordanie. La description couvre des questions relatives à la phonologie, morphologie et à la syntaxe. Le parler de Salt est un parler de type sédentaire, du groupe levantin (sud), proche des dialectes du Horan. Il s'agit de la première description exhaustive d'une variété jordanienne. Descriptive study of the arabic dialect of Salt in Jordan. The study covers issues in phonology, morphology and syntax. The dialect of Salt is a sedentary variety and belongs to the southern levantine group. This is the first comprehensive description of a Jordanian variety