When considering early Byzantine pilgrimage tokens, questions of touch and tactility arise almost instantly. Tokens lack cords or mountings, and so touch is implicit in such objects. Even gazing at them was a form of touching for the pilgrim. Hagiographies tell of pilgrims crowding to holy sites with the express intent to access sanctity through touch. Touch then, whether visual or manual, mediated the desire for connection between a pilgrim, a site, and a body. This requires an examination of a token’s touch as well as a pilgrim’s. In my thesis, I focus on a surviving token of the stylite saint Symeon the Younger, housed in the Menil Collection. This particular token bears iconography associated with physically and spiritually transformative events. Images of veneration, baptism, and healing appear together on the token’s obverse, while a human handprint on its reverse demands a multifaceted discussion of the implications of touching this object. I propose that in a pilgrim’s interaction with this token both object and viewer had agency. The token encapsulates a comprehensive pilgrimage experience. As a contact relic, the token makes present the saint’s body. Representation of baptism and the token’s backwards inscription enact sphragis – a figurative and literal stamping that pilgrims frequently described. I call attention to the experiential, memorial, and physical impressions made on the lives of early Byzantine pilgrims through the simultaneous touching of both viewer and object. / text

The subject of this dissertation is the life achievement of Syrian poet Nizar Qabbani (1923-1998). The study follows two tracks, one literary focused on the poetry and biography of the poet, and one historical focused on the concurrent political and social developments in the Arab world in the twentieth century. The two tracks contextualize and elucidate each other to form a mega-narrative of Arab life in modern times. The narrative begins by investigating the intellectual world in which Nizar grew up, continues on to examine his unique personal and familial makeup as well as the social and political context of the times, then proceeds to analyze his poetic achievement as it unfolded. In so doing, a picture emerges of the Arab experience in modern times as reflected in Nizar's own creative experience and tumultuous life.The narrative concentrates initially on Syria, more specifically on Damascus, being the birthplace and the breeding ground where the poet's character was first shaped. But once the poet leaves on his many journeys, a wider perspective is adopted to highlight the many other influences that ultimately went into his making, reverting back to Syria insomuch as it continued to influence the poet's unfolding narrative. Although a chronological line threads through the work starting from the poet's birth in 1923 to his passing in 1998, this line is accentuated throughout the life of the poet by the many places he lived in - cities that left their distinctive mark on his consciousness and poetry. As such, the mega-narrative, much like a journey, sets a background of progressive time against a foreground of places that give meaning to the timeline. In general terms, this study views the life of Nizar Qabbani in three interrelated and overlapping stages: a sensuous period (1923-52) that can be poetically described as local, direct, masculine, confident, and joyful; a period of social responsibility (1952-1973) that can be described as mixed, confused, itinerant, transvestite (both feminine and masculine), rebellious and conformist, happy and unhappy at the same time; and an exilic period (1973-1998): committed, feminine, rebellious, esoteric, melancholic and despairing.

This dissertation constitutes the first monograph devoted to Qalawun's life and reign based on the contemporary and original data found in the Arabic chronicles of the period. An historiographical approach has brought to light information regarding the career of this sultan and has revealed contemporary historians' perceptions of his role as sultan. On the basis of an analysis of several aspects of the political and administrative, economic and social structure of the empire, which reflects the emphasis of the sources on the activities of the sultan, we concluded that centralization of sovereignty was enhanced during Qalawun's reign. But, whereas the historians attribute this development to the sultan's political convictions, analysis of the events they record indicates that other factors--most significant of which was the superimposition of the Mamluk system on the political, economic and social structure of Egypt and Syria--largely explain this trend.

Syftet med denna uppsats var att undersöka integrationsprocessen för de syriska immigranter, som har kommit till Sverige för minst två år sedan. Vi ville få reda på hur de hade upplevt första tiden i Sverige, hur de uppfattar att stödet från det svenska samhället har varit och vilka faktorer som har haft betydelse för deras välmående. I denna uppsats har vi använt oss av en kvalitativ metod. Data har samlats in genom intervjuer som har behandlat integrationsprocessen utifrån syriska emigranters perspektiv. Till våra intervjuer har vi använt oss av en intervjuguide och vi valde ut tre kvinnor och två män där deras ålder varierade från 20 till 45 årsåldern. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna utgick ifrån Bourdieus habitus, Olkiewiczs (2008) assimilatoriska och nostalgiska grupper samt Franzens (1997) konstruktiva och destruktiva mönster. Vårt resultat visade att första tiden i Sverige ansågs som en väldigt svår period för våra informanter. Detta berodde dels på att man var rädd att inte bli erbjuden ett svenskt uppehållstillstånd och dels att man i vissa fall upplevde osäkerhet på förläggningen. De berättade att ekonomin inte har varit ett större problem, men däremot var de missnöjda med att man inte tog hänsyn till deras psykiska ohälsa efter de hemska upplevelserna i deras hemland. Våra informanter menade även att det svenska språket, kulturen och arbetet är alla viktiga bakgrunder för att de ska kunna känna sig delaktiga i samhället. Genom vårt resultat kan vi dra slutsatser om att samhälleliga och politiska åtgärder måste tas när det gäller integrationsprocessen. Det första som borde göras är att förbättra emigranternas tillgång till psykiatrisk hjälp, med tanken på att deras psykiska ohälsa har haft största inverkan på deras integration. Detta menar informanterna när de berättar att de önskade stöd ifrån samhället för att kunna underlätta de förhållanden som de anser förbättrar deras välmående. En lyckad integration bör byggas på samspel mellan samhället och emigranten för att de ska kunna anpassa sig i samhället och detta är självklart en förutsättning för att befrämja emigranternas roller i samhället. / In recent times there has been a lot of debate on Syrian refugees who have immigrated to Sweden. The armed conflict in Syria is now in its fourth year. At least 120 000 people have died. The conflict has forced 9 million Syrians to flee and out of them 6.5 million are IDPs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the integration process of the Syrian immigrants, who have lived in Sweden for at least two years. We wanted to find out how they had experienced their first time in Sweden, how they perceive the support from the Swedish society and the factors that have had an impact on their wellbeing. In this essay we have used a qualitative method. Data was collected through interviews which dealt with the integration process based on Syrian immigrants´ perspective. To our interviews, we used an interview guide and we picked out three women and two men between the age 20 to 45 years. The theoretical basis was based on Bourdieu's habitus, Olkiewiczs (2008) assimilatory and nostalgic groups and Franzens (1997) constructive and destructive patterns. Our results showed that the first time in Sweden was considered as a very difficult period for our informants. This was partly because of the fear of not being offered a Swedish residence permit, in turn this caused feelings of uncertainty in the refugee camps. They told us that the economy has not been a major problem, however, they were unhappy with that lack of consideration about their mental illness after the terrible experiences in their past. Some important aspects of feeling part of the community participant in the community were language skills, knowledge of Swedish culture and access to employment. Through our results, we can draw the conclusions that social and political measures must be taken with regard to the integration process. The first thing you should do is to improve immigrants´ access to psychological treatment, since mental illness has had the biggest impact on their integration. At the same time we concluded that our informants need support from the community, in order to facilitate the conditions that they believe will improve their well-being. Successful integration should be built on the interaction between society and the immigrant, in order to be able to adapt to the society, and this is a fundamental condition for promoting the immigrants´ roles in society.

Lo studio analizza la relazione tra la struttura del potere neo-patrimoniale (fondata sullo scambio tra distribuzione arbitraria di opportunità economiche e lealtà politica) e la debolezza del sistema inter-statale arabo. Combinando un approccio storico-istituzionalista e un approccio intermestic, lo studio considera il neo-patrimonialismo arabo prodotto della contraddizione irrisolta tra la cristallizzazione delle sovranità statali imposte dalle ex-potenze coloniali e il progetto politico mancato della ‘Grande Nazione Araba’. Questa dinamica ha prodotto l’illegittimità strutturale dell’ordine inter-statale arabo, che investe lo stato nella dimensione territoriale e nella dimensione del potere. A cavallo degli anni 70’, nei regimi arabi si osserva una transizione dall’autoritarismo populista ad un sistema neo-patrimoniale. Esaminando i casi-studio di Egitto e Siria, questa tesi si propone di analizzare il divario tra lo state-building ‘weberiano’(legale-razionale) e ‘neo-patrimoniale’: in quest’ultimo, la mancanza di istituzionalizzazione legale-razionale impedisce la formazione di un legame di cittadinanza e asseconda la persistenza di identificazioni sociali tradizionali. In riferimento all’Egitto e alla Siria ,l’analisi mira a mettere in evidenza la relazione tra l’indebolimento (o il crollo) del regime e il collasso istituzionale dello stato. Questo fenomeno in Siria, a differenza dell’Egitto, si accompagna ad una ibridazione della sovranità statale, in virtù della frammentazione politicizzata della società siriana. / This thesis investigates the relation between Arab neo-patrimonial power structures (based on the arbitrary distribution of economic opportunities in exchange of political loyalty) and the weakness of the Arab inter-state system. Combining a historic institutional and an intermestic approach, this study considers neo-patrimonialism as the outcome of the unsolved contradiction between the crystallization of western-imposed sovereignties and the missed political project of the ‘Greater Arab Nation’ (contesting colonial borders). This has, in turn, produced the structural illegitimacy of the inter-state order, affecting both the territorial and the authority dimensions of the state. In dealing with this ‘legitimacy problem’, post-1970 Arab regimes have tended to replace populist authoritarian (ideological-grounded) with neo-patrimonial (material-based) power strategies. Through the cases of Egypt and Syria, the study aims at analysing the gap between a ‘Weberian’ (legal-rational) and a ‘neo-patrimonial’ state-building: in the latter case, the missing legal-rational institutionalization hinders a social identification based on citizenship, seconding the persistence of traditional identities. By examining Egypt and Syria’s power structures, this study enlightens the relation between regime collapse and institutional collapse. Unlike Egypt, which enjoys a substantial societal homogeneity, in Syria we witness the hybridization of state’s sovereignty, stemming from the politicized fragmented character of Syria’s society.

The Arab spring has been called a social media revolution and social media have been given large importance and significant space in both academic discussions and analysis in the media. The main focus of this study was to examine whether social media have impacted the news reporting of the conflicts. A sample of articles from four different newspapers was examined, taken randomly from all relevant articles published on the newspapers websites between December 2010 and December 2013. A part of that sample was checked for news agency cable reliance and the entire sample were checked for material from social media. Three newspapers were found to rely heavily on news agency material. The New York Times was the exception, having only 4 percent of articles being based on news agency material. Social media material and quotes were found and were used in the report-ing in different ways, but only in 4 percent of articles. It was mainly used as a way to get protester commentary. Two of the included newspapers were China Daily and the New York Times. The differences between the respective reporting in these newspapers were also examined in yet an-other subsample consisting of 100 articles from each newspaper. Several differences be-tween the reporting were found, with China Daily for example presenting a framing more in favour of the government of Syria than the New York Times.

Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of St Andrews, May 2007. / Restricted until 13th May 2008.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-281). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 259-281). Also available on the Internet.

Thèse--Paris. / "Edition mise à jour." Bibliographie: p. [401]-408