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<p> This dissertation analyzes an unusual grammatical pattern that I call locative determiner omission, which is found in several languages belonging to the Slavic, Romance, and Albanian families, but which does not appear to have been directly inherited from any individual genetic ancestor of these languages. Locative determiner omission involves the omission of a definite article in the context of a locative prepositional phrase, and stands out as a feature of the Balkan linguistic area for which there are few, if any crosslinguistic parallels. This investigation of the origin and diachronic spread of locative determiner omission serves the particular goal of revealing how the social context of language contact could have resulted in a pattern of grammatical borrowing without lexical borrowing, yielding a present distribution in which locative determiner omission appears in several Balkan languages no longer in direct contact with one another. A detailed structural and historical analysis of locative determiner omission in Albanian, Romanian, Aromanian, and Macedonian is used as a basis for comparison with other Balkan languages. The analysis pays particular attention to the sequence of grammatical changes necessary for the outcome of locative determiner omission in each language, and the specific sociocultural configurations between speaker communities at relevant historical stages that allowed for the spread of locative determiner omission without direct lexical borrowing. This makes it possible to establish that locative determiner omission arose from a period of early contact between proto-Albanian and Late Latin, resulting in the generalization of the structure across all branches of Balkan Romance. During a later period, contact between Aromanian and individual dialects of Albanian and Macedonian resulted in the transfer of this feature, which then spread throughout most, but not all dialects of these latter languages.</p><p> A methodological contribution of this dissertation is the demonstration that in-depth study of a grammatical feature that is suspected to have developed through language contact can yield important insights into the historical and social dynamics of a linguistic area that cannot be determined through synchronic observation of broad similarities alone. Even in the absence of documentation, careful reconstruction of the structural accommodations required for the adoption of a grammatical innovation can reveal new information about the process of language contact. This is particularly true for features that are not uniformly distributed across a linguistic area, as is the case with locative determiner omission in the Balkans. As a consequence, my proposal argues for an approach to linguistic areas that views them as an outcome of localized, layered clusters of convergence.</p><p>

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<p> As communities in Bosnia have experienced genocide, the global community is in need of understanding a way toward justice by recognizing crimes against humanity to further gain insight into reconciliation and healing lives across the lifespan. Understanding intergenerational trauma among Bosnian young adults, who have experienced narratives of crimes against humanity throughout childhood and adolescence, is important for future generations in order to leave the world a better place in which to grow. Photo-voice involved the participant capturing a photo as a means for story elicitation, representation, and reflection of the Bosnian community. This visual medium provided psycho-dynamic insight into a photo-voice where participants reflected upon social needs, promoted critical dialogue, and expressed feeling empowered. As a result of the study, findings indicated from capturing photographs stimulated through narratives between Bosnian young adults shed light in understanding toward healing and communal reconciliation. The present study explored the outcomes through which trauma of one-generation impacts on subsequent generations. The study captured a visual phenomenon, a photo-voice and further examined subjective experiences, beliefs, and perceptions of Bosnian young adults in a post-war society.</p>

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This dissertation introduces and analyzes "piety stories," the stories that Muslim Tatar women in Tatarstan, Russia, share about their paths to becoming observant Muslims. It examines the ways women use these stories to create and represent moral worlds that diverge from those of the mostly secular, historically Christian, society that surrounds them. This study is based on ethnographic research and recordings of stories in Tatarstan's capital city of Kazan and its suburbs over a total period of thirteen months (from 2006 through 2010). While outsiders often see Islam as oppressing women, these women experience Muslim piety as a source of agency and a resource for personal and social transformation in post-Soviet Russia. Piety stories allow Muslim Tatar women to (re)experience their commitment to Islam at the discursive level and to invite others to step onto a path to Muslim piety, thus serving as a form of da'wah, a Muslim's moral duty to invite others to Islam. Through these stories, women perform identities, negotiate group memberships, and contribute to building both local and global Muslim communities. Piety stories serve as a window onto the personal politics of the post-Soviet Muslim revival. Older women, for example, use stories to create coherent narratives of their piety, despite their relative lack of religious practice during the state-endorsed atheism of the Soviet period. Expressions of gender are also intertwined with this political and economic history. Both Soviet policies and the immediate post-Soviet economic collapse required women to work outside the home in addition to caring for their families, and many Muslim Tatar women find the clear delineation of traditional gender roles and rights in Islam liberating. In global and local contexts where Muslim piety is often conflated with political Islam and terrorism, women use piety stories to deal with stereotypical perceptions of Muslims by showing their religious identities and the forms of Islam they practice to be moral. Ultimately, practicing Muslim Tatar women use piety stories as one way--a discursive one--to challenge, re-produce, or legitimize their understanding of Islam and what it means to be a practicing Muslim Tatar woman in Russia today.

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