abstract: Las Islas Canarias son un archipiélago de la costa africana situado a cien kilómetros de la costa de Marruecos y del Sáhara Occidental. Estas islas fueron conquistadas a finales del siglo XV y son actualmente parte del Estado español, y su posición como punto de paso tricontinental ha facilitado una historia colonial que es paralela a la del Caribe y que está caracterizada por la asimilación de sus poblaciones indígenas, las plantaciones de caña de azúcar y el comercio esclavista atlántico, la emergencia de un Nuevo Mundo, las migraciones constantes desde las Islas Canarias hacia el Caribe, el desarrollo de movimientos independentistas y la turistificación del paraíso caribeño/canario, entre otros aspectos. La identidad de las Islas Canarias, si embargo, ha permanecido en una posición ambigua en la discusión de conceptos de tricontinentalidad o puente entre continentes, cuando estas islas no son simplemente consideradas como una región más de España con ligeras diferencias. Desde el Caribe, varios autores regionales han cuestionado sus propias identidades proponiendo los conceptos de creolización, relación o meta-archipiélago. Las ideas comunes exploradas por intelectuales de ambos archipiélagos incluyen los conceptos de colonialidad, modernidad, mitologización de la isla, fragmentación, atlanticidad, frontera y ultraperiferia, entre otros. De esta manera, esta tesis doctoral conecta las Islas Canarias y el Caribe a través de la exploración de sus discursos identitarios, y aplica a Canarias las teorías poscoloniales desarrolladas en el Caribe. Partiendo del análisis de diversos trabajos de Fernando Ortiz, Antonio S. Pedreira, Édouard Glissant, Jean Bernabé, Patrick Chamoiseau, Raphael Confiant, Antonio Benítez Rojo, José Luis González, Juan Flores, Gustavo Pérez-Firmat, Walter Mignolo, Enrique Dussel, Gloria Anzaldúa y Juan Manuel García Ramos, entre otros, esta tesis propone el término canaribeñidad para definir el desarrollo bilateral y común de las identidades nacionales en las Islas Canarias y el Caribe, destacando la contribución canaria a la identidad caribeña (la fundación de la literatura cubana, el guajiro/jíbaro, la brujería…) y viceversa (discursos independentistas y nacionalistas, la experiencia diaspórica, la música, el tabaco, el sentido de fraternidad con el Caribe…). El corpus analizado en esta disertación incluye obras literarias transatlánticas, desde las primeras crónicas hasta ejemplos de teatro, novelas, ensayos, artículos periodísticos y poesía de los siglos XVI-XX. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Spanish 2019

More than two decades after the Polish Roundtable Agreement inaugurated the collapse of the Soviet Bloc, political conversations in the post-communist space remain remarkably attuned to symbolic and ethical questions. Disputed historical legacies have represented significant points of contestation within and among the former Warsaw Pact and Soviet successor states ever since regime transitions began in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but instead of attenuating with the passage of time as many predicted, the politics of history have become more prominent over the course of the last decade, acquiring an increasingly transnational dimension in the process. Consequently, in post-communist Europe transnational moral discourse over contentious historical episodes has emerged as a significant feature of interstate relations, serving both as a means for states to define their identities and interests relative to neighbors and as a potential source of conflict between them. Proposing a contextual heuristic (Russia and the European Union [EU] as ideational "anchoring hegemons") within which to understand the regional influences that foster this phenomenon, I develop a set of theoretical mechanisms to account for the transnational salience of the past in contemporary post-communist politics. Argumentation proceeds through three case studies: Poland and the 1940 Katyń massacre; Ukraine and the 1932-1933 famine (Holodomor); and the divergent political recall of WWII and the communist period evinced across Russia, the European Union, and the Baltic/East-Central European states. / Government

<p> This project evaluates the effectiveness of life coaching and seeks to prove that coaching can be a better method of producing disciples who fulfill their ministry purposes than the methods currently being employed in small churches in the urban areas of Greater Cleveland. Specifically, this project will address three separate hypotheses that are all related to demonstrating the importance of the coaching ministry at Hope Alliance Bible Church (HABC). <b> Hypothesis 1:</b> The HABC coaching program will be successful in enabling spiritual transformation to occur within the eight participants. <b>Hypothesis 2:</b> The HABC coaching program will be successful in increasing church ministry training and/or church ministry participation for the eight participants. <b> Hypothesis 3:</b> The HABC coaching program will be successful in increasing participation in activities that connect with the community around HABC for the eight participants. </p><p> Chapter 1 gives the rationale for the researcher's interest in discovering how to best incorporate a coaching paradigm into the ministry environment of small urban churches. Examples from Scripture are given to support the importance of coaching in the process of bringing disciples to maturity and preparing them for ministry. Proof is given to show why the church should be involved in bringing positive change to the community. </p><p> Chapter 2 provides the literature review of the resources used in or relative to the study, and insights from previous research related to the subject of life coaching for urban leaders. The researcher presents a wide-array of excellent resources from accomplished practitioners in the areas of coaching, urban ministry, discipleship, and leadership development. Leaders who desire to become change agents in the church and community will need to stay abreast of current best practices in all of these areas, and the books and articles mentioned will prove to be of great assistance for growing leaders. </p><p> Chapter 3 is the record of the procedures and research methods used in this study. </p><p> A summary timeline is given to provide an overview of how the research was conducted from start to finish. Information is given to show how the participants were selected, and general information about each of them is also revealed. The topics of discussion are presented in chapter three, along with how they related to the objectives of the coaching sessions. A general description of how the sessions were conducted is also included, along with the assessment criteria from each session and why there were deemed significant in the outcomes of the three hypotheses. Individual and corporate coaching sessions were held twice monthly, using topics that would help the participants discover God's will and follow through on a life plan to fulfill the God-given purpose for their lives. </p><p> Chapter 4 provides the findings and results of the study, showing the hypotheses, accumulated data, and responses of the participants involved in the project. The objectives met by each participant are presented, how meeting those objectives contributed to the increased level of participation in the areas related to the three hypotheses, and how coaching was instrumental in those achievements. The data provides a record of the progress made by each participant. Evaluations were based upon the steps taken to continue spiritual growth, preparation for ministry, and involvement in ministry outside of the church. </p><p> Chapter 5 provides the Conclusions and Research Implications of this project. Results are given and conclusions drawn that show the value of performing life coaching for aspiring leaders in small urban churches. The coach compared the pre-assessment data with the post-assessment data, and the participants performed a self-evaluation at the end of the pilot period. Based upon the data, conclusions are given as to why the coaching program had low, medium, or high levels of effectiveness in the areas of spiritual transformation, church ministry involvement, and activities that connect with the community. Conclusive reasons are given to show why further research should be done in this area, using variables such as accumulating data from a longer period of time, coaching preachers only, and allowing the community to assess whether or not the church is making a difference in their lives.</p>

abstract: Sacred apocalyptic texts claim to foretell coming events, warning the faithful of some terrible fate that lies beyond the present. Such texts often derive their power from successfully recasting past events in such a way as they appear to be "predicted" by the text and thus take on additional meanings beyond the superficial. This ex eventu status allows apocalyptic texts to increase the credibility of their future predictions and connect emotionally with the reader by playing on present fears. The fifth-century Daoist apocalyptic text, the Scripture on the Cycles of Heaven and Earth (Tiandi yundu jing, &#22825;&#22320;&#36939;&#24230;&#32147;), is no exception. This thesis examines the apocalyptic markers in the poetic sections of the text, attempting to develop a strategy for separating the generic imagery (both to Chinese texts and the apocalyptic literary genre as a whole) from the more significant recoverable references to contemporary events such as the fall of the Jin dynasty and the subsequent founding of the Liu-Song dynasty. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. East Asian Languages and Civilizations 2011

abstract: This study addresses the landscape connectivity pattern at two different scales. The county-level analysis aims to understand how urban ecosystem structure is likely to evolve in response to the proposed development plans in Maricopa County, Arizona. To identify the spatio-temporal land pattern change, six key landscape metrics were quantified in relative to the urban development scenarios based on the certainty of the proposed urban plans with different level of urban footprints. The effects of future development plans from municipalities on landscape connectivity were then analyzed in the scaled temporal and spatial frame to identify in which urban condition the connectivity value would most likely to decrease. The results demonstrated that tremendous amount of lands will be dedicated to future urbanization, and especially urban agricultural lands will be likely to be vulnerable. The metro-level analysis focuses on a group of species that represent urban desert landscape and have different degrees of fragmentation sensitivity and habitat type requirement. It hypothesizes that the urban habitat patch connectivity is impacted upon by urban density. Two underlying propositions were set: first, lower connectivity is predominant in areas with high urbanization cover; second, landscape connectivity will be impacted largely on the interfaces between urban, suburban, and rural areas. To test this, a GIS-based connectivity modeling was employed. The resultant change in connectivity values was examined for exploring the spatial relation to predefined spatial frames, such as urban, suburban, and rural zones of which boundaries were delineated by buffering method with two criteria of human population density and urban cover proportion. The study outcomes provide a practical guidance to minimize connectivity loss and degradation by informing planners with more optimal alternatives among various policy decisions and implementation. It also gives an inspiration for ecological landscape planning in urbanized or urbanizing regions which can ultimately leads urban landscape sustainability. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Environmental Design and Planning 2011

This thesis is devoted to clarifying the issue of atlas production offer and its availability within the scope of the Czech republic. An atlas is a collection of maps interconnected via their purpose, theme, scale coefficient or scale coefficient set, generalization and other system aspects. These are conceptually processed cartographically and polygraphicaly as a unified work. The opening part explains the characteristics of atlas production including the historical development of cartography which is related to this issue. The following part depicts the division of atlases according the individual typology. Another thing elucidated here is which atlases are available in the Czech republic. Only selected atlases are mentioned in this section. The main section of this thesis focuses on the specific cartographic representation and cartographic presentation at a given area. It is a modern method of presentation alternative and utilization of a cartographic digital production what is engaged here.

abstract: This dissertation project addresses one of the most critical problems in the study of religion: how do scriptures acquire significance in religious communities in ways that go beyond the meaning of their words? Based on data collected during ethnographic work in Maharashtra, India, in 2011 and 2012, I analyze the complex relationship between a religious text and its readers with reference to ritual reading of the <italics>Gurucaritra, a Marathi scripture written in the sixteenth century. I argue that readers of the <italics>Gurucaritra create a self-actualized modern religiosity both by interpreting the content of the text and by negotiating the rules of praxis surrounding their reading activity. In particular, this dissertation analyzes the ways in which members of the Dattatreya tradition in urban Maharashatra ritualize their tradition's central text-- the <italics>Gurucaritra--in terms of everyday issues and concerns of the present. Taking inspiration from reader-response criticism, I focus on the <italics> pArAyaN; (reading the entire text) of the <italics>Gurucaritra, the central scripture of the Dattatreya tradition, in the context of its contemporary readings in Maharashtra. In the process of reading the <italics>Gurucaritra, readers become modern by making a conscious selection from their tradition. In the process of approaching their tradition through the text, what they achieve is a sense of continuity and a faith that, if they have the support of the guru, nothing can go wrong. In the process of choosing elements from their tradition, they ultimately achieve a sense of being modern individuals who work out rules of religiosity for themselves. This dissertation contributes to the study of scriptures in two major ways: first, by bringing forth how religious communities engage with scriptures for reasons other than their comprehension; second, by showing how scriptures can play a crucial role in religious communities in the context of addressing concerns of their present. Thus, this research contributes to the fields of scripture studies, Hinduism, and literary criticism. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Religious Studies 2014

abstract: From 1973 to 1984 the people of Uruguay lived under a repressive military dictatorship. During that time, the Uruguayan government violated the Human Rights of its opponents and critics through prolonged imprisonment in inhumane conditions without trial, physical and psychological torture, disappearance, and a negation of freedom of speech, thought and congregation. In this project, I argue that these violations of Human Rights committed by the military dictatorship added urgency to the rethinking by religious individuals of the Uruguayan model of secularism, the laïcité, and the role that their theology required them to play in the "secular" world. Influenced by the Liberation Theology movement, Catholic and Protestant leaders simultaneously made use of and challenged the secularization model in order to carve a space for themselves in the struggle for the protection of Human Rights. Furthermore, I will argue that due to the Uruguayan system of partitocracy, which privileges political parties as the main voices in public matters, Uruguay still carries this history of Human Rights violations on its back. Had alternative views been heard in the public sphere, this thorny history might have been dealt with in a fairer manner. Thus, I call for further exploration of the "intelligent laïcité" model, which might ensure true democratic participation in the public sphere. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Religious Studies 2015

abstract: Immigrants, refugees, asylum seekers. Three words describing the same group of people. Individuals seeking a better, safer life. Western media is focused right now, in 2016, on the humanitarian crisis from the Middle East to the European Union; just like two years ago it was centered on the huge numbers of unaccompanied minors immigrating into the United States from Central America. Media changes its focus but problems do not end with a change of headlines. Unaccompanied minors are the most vulnerable population looking for asylum. This study looks at two different immigration flows of unaccompanied minors: one from the Middle East going to the European Union; and the other one from Central America to the United States. This research finds similarities and differences between these two flows of migrant children related to the reasons why they leave their countries of origin, their experiences during the trip to the destination countries, the asylum process, the legal status of these children and how these minors are perceived by societies in the destination countries. Using a human rights law framework, this thesis will explore the continuum of violations of human rights that these children endure on their journey from their origin countries to their destination states. Through interviews with former and current direct providers of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, previous scholarly work, documentaries and news articles on the subject, it will make clear that these two flows of children fleeing to different destinations have much more in common than what may be initially perceived. This emergent, exploratory and inductive qualitative research will bring light to asylum law and question why the social responsibility to protect children seems to skip the most vulnerable ones: unaccompanied minors seeking asylum. / Dissertation/Thesis / Documents to be included in addendum / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2016

abstract: Since the 1960’s and 1970’s, ethnographic research on Jewish menstrual rituals known as niddah, Taharat HaMishpacha, or Family Purity has associated their practices with religious behavior. Much of this research organizes around questions of women’s agency within ostensibly patriarchally constructed religious practices that carry the potential to oppress its women practitioners. This premise is built upon a number of implicit assumptions about the history of today’s niddah practices: that niddah is observed exclusively by Orthodox Jews; that increasing rates of niddah observance correlate exclusively with the trend toward stricter observance levels among the Orthodox since the 1960s; and that this increasingly strict observance itself reflects a reactionary trend among the Orthodox community (a.k.a. tradition versus modernity). All these assumptions currently circulate, in various degrees, among the American Jewish lay community and are shared by a significant number of congregational rabbis. Until the 1990s, no history of niddah existed to either support or refute these assumptions. I initially intended that this project would provide future ethnographers with a comprehensive history of niddah in America during the past one and a half centuries. I engaged Victor Turner’s theory of Social Drama as a framework for understanding this history as a socio-cultural process, rather than as a series of less than related events. However, this study h*as resulted in the identification of many more specific assumptions about the decline and revival of niddah observance in the twentieth century, which are not supported by the scant evidence available. These challenged assumptions beg new directions for research; a thorough reworking of the history of niddah in America; and a fresh look at the literature advocating niddah produced in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. This genealogy as Social Drama presents niddah in twentieth century America as undergoing periods of crisis, negotiation, and reintegration. This drama was triggered by late nineteenth century concepts of religion, body, and ritual that undermined and ruptured the integrity of niddah as a bodily religious ritual practice. Niddah’s twentieth century social drama culminated in fresh articulations of a unique Jewish sexuality and Jewish marital ethic. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Religious Studies 2015