In the context of debates about the causal role that new media technologies did or didn’t play in the 2011 Arab uprisings, my dissertation conversely examines some of the diverse and contradictory ways new media technologies have been used and their power envisaged during revolution and war in Syria since 2011. Exploring various contexts of use, I consider how the same technologies have been understood to ground divergent political projects, to produce contradictory affective responses, and to mint antithetical epistemic values. I ask how technologies come to be seen as answers to social and political problems; and I give an account of the social and political questions asked of a technology as it moves through geographies, institutional settings, or historical moments. By investigating the infrastructural, epistemological, and affective dimensions of the Syrian revolution and war and the work of its media activists I develop a conceptual analysis of political possibilities and their foreclosure in Syria over the past decade. My dissertation draws on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Turkey, Lebanon, France and Germany (2018-2020) among communities of humanitarian, media and digital forensic activists involving two different but connected things. First, following activists as they move, across borders, in and out of organizations, and in and out of activism. Second, following images as they move, also across borders, in and out of contexts of use, and in and out of use. These two movements happen at different intensities and speeds, and with different levels of friction, marked by the politics of access to Syria. Based on interviews with a range of actors invested in the use of new media technologies, I give an account of how and why Syrian activists persevered with their political projects and technological practices despite having little hope of success. Second, amidst widespread scholarly interest in humanitarian intervention, I argue that the governmental practice of stabilisation, despite congruences with the practices of human rights video and forms of humanitarian intervention, has served as a distinct form of intervention in the wake of the ‘War on Terror’. Third, amidst widespread arguments that the Syrian uprising was a failed democratic revolution, I argue that the uprising should be considered on the basis of its central demand for dignity, while tracing the career of the concept in a debate amongst Syrian intellectuals over the “right to a dignified image”. Finally, by participating in a digital forensic investigation, I give an account of the legal, technical and political hurdles that would have to be overcome to turn open source content into legally felicitous evidence in a possible future war crimes tribunal.

The purpose of this study was to determine how secondary mathematics education changes in Hungary between 1867 and 1956 were reflected in journal articles of that time. In an attempt to accomplish this purpose, the researcher sought to identify which major political and socioeconomic factors affected the role and content of periodicals, how the content and approach of the topics changed, and who were the most prominent and influential authors of the periodicals between 1867 and 1956. This research investigates Journal of the National Association of Secondary School Teachers, the first periodical devoted to Hungarian secondary education published between 1868 and 1944, and Teaching of Mathematics, the first Hungarian periodical dedicated to mathematic education published between 1953 and 1956. The researcher employed historical-research methodology to examine the articles of the periodicals and categorize them based on similar content such as curriculum, teaching methods, school mathematics, and book/textbook reviews. The study also provides brief summaries of several articles. This research has shown that the history of Hungarian education in general was often influenced by foreign and domestic politics and ideologies. Studying journal articles provides a unique opportunity to observe real-time communication between educators and administrators and to analyze the effect of social and political changes which influenced mathematics education. Between 1867 and 1956, Hungary underwent major political and social changes—a dual Monarchy with Austria, independence as a truncated state, and occupation by Germany and later the Soviet Union. These changes significantly altered Hungary as a country and impacted its education system. While every country has undergone political and ideological influences in its educational history, Hungary was particularly affected by neighboring countries such as Germany and later the Soviet Union. Taking the broader perspective of the evolution of periodicals, this study demonstrated that the history of periodicals as a general form of scientific communication has passed through several stages. The journals, in some respects, are a bridge between educators and were affected by the political atmosphere of the country. In general, this study has shown that Journal of the National Association of Secondary School Teachers and Teaching of Mathematics were heavily influenced by social and political changes in Hungary, as well as foreign influences from countries such as Germany and the Soviet Union. These factors collectively formed Hungarian mathematics education between 1867 and 1956.

One aim of emancipatory social movements is to make political communities more inclusive. The way in which a movement pursues transformative political change depends on its account of how political actors understand one another as members of a shared community. Drawing on the antebellum political thought of Black abolitionists Frederick Douglass and Martin Delany, I argue that acknowledgement is a mode of practical understanding that effectively combats exclusionary ideas of political community. I acknowledge you as a fellow member of my political community because you enact a commitment to the community's fundamental principles; enacting such a commitment is what makes you a member of the community. My acknowledgement itself consists in a responsiveness to the fact—independent of my own judgment— that you are a member of the community. This responsiveness manifests in how we comport ourselves in relation to one another in daily political life, which is the primary locus of intervention for effective efforts at making political communities more inclusive.