Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisors: Jean Graham-Jones, Brenda Cappuccio, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 18, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains viii, 231pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisors: Jean Graham-Jones, Brenda Cappuccio, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Modern Languages and Linguistics. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (doctoral)--Universität, Münster, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [333]-379).

The aim of this thesis is to clarify what are the limits of the right of the state to expel aliens under international law while examining whether or not there is any general rule by which states are bound in exercising their power to expel aliens from their territory. This thesis is using a descriptive and analytical method as methods of work. The comparative method is also partially used for analysis of the practice of states in the individual aspects of the limitation of the right of expulsion and the related decision-making practice of the judicial and quasi-judicial authorities. The conclusion of this thesis is an analysis of the fragmented legal regulation of expulsion of aliens in different areas of international law (both procedural rules and selected areas of substantive regulation). The work is mainly focused on examining limits of states to expel an alien to a particular state through non-refoulement principle and restrictions to expel aliens through the protection of family and private life. Concerning the general conclusions, the examination of limits on the right to expel in international law has crystallized in one general rule that can be considered as an implicit part of all the limits analyzed, which is the effort to avoid the arbitrariness of states.

This dissertation is a study of the construction of the ‘illegality’ of migration in the Central Mediterranean region from the mid-twentieth century to the present across genres, disciplines and media. Reading a heterogenous set of sources ranging from film to poetry and from parliamentary debates to legal opinions, this dissertation posits the ‘illegality’ of human mobility as a process and not an ontological trait, demonstrating its fluidity and tracking some of its most salient changes over time. Moreover, it argues that these notions of ‘illegality,’ which developed and are interrogated in legal discourse and aesthetic practices, are significantly altered as they circulate across linguistic boundaries even though they continue to be understood as stable and neutral labels. They form a grammar of illegalization the contested semantics of which are simultaneously national and transnational. This dissertation finally suggests that we understand the illegalization of migration as a multilingual object that is written and constructed across multiple discourses and disciplines, and asks that we tend to its grammar as a way to denaturalize and, eventually, attempt to rewrite the ‘illegality’ of human mobility.

This study focuses on the discourse that orders and creates a logic of the extraterrestrial during postmodernity, what I term "Fringe." Using Foucault's notion of discourse, I define and theorize Fringe and its formation during postmodernity, looking at the particular features of the historical moment post-1960 that contributed to the creation and regulation of a particular extraterrestrial. I then investigate historical conceptions of the extraterrestrial from Aquinas to Kant. This genealogy of the extraterrestrial reveals a rich history of the extraterrestrial and compares this history with Fringe. After this I discuss two precursors of Fringe discourse: the Society for Psychical Research and the writings of anomalous researcher Charles Fort. This investigation of pre-Fringe notions of the psychical in discourse shows how the SPR and Fort's work both created new ways of looking at and speaking about phenomena falling outside the purview of "normal science" and contributed to the formation of Fringe while also being distinguishable from it. Finally, I analyze two popular iterations of Fringe discourse—the ancient aliens hypothesis and the abduction narrative—as popularized in the works of Erich von Däniken and Whitley Strieber.

published_or_final_version / Asian Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Journalism and Media Studies Centre / Master / Master of Journalism

The mass media through their power of mass persuasion have an impact on the readers’, viewers’ or listeners’ perceptions of social phenomena. This paper reports on a quantitative content analysis of articles appearing in the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Washington Post, and Arizona Daily Star between 1972 and 1978 that dealt with the subject of undocumented (illegal) immigration from Mexico to the U.S. In this way, it is an empirical study in the sociology of knowledge that examines the social reality constructed by the news media regarding this complex social issue. We found a significant increase in the number of articles appearing each year on this topic. Relatively few were written by Spanish-surnamed individuals or used undocumented immigrants as sources of information. In fact, most of the information presented in the articles was obtained from the Border Patrol, Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), and politicians. We conclude that news media coverage of undocumented Mexican immigration was not balanced and that the American public accepted the biased information they read as an accurate reflection of social reality.