”Sustainable reconciliation”, a form of international aid relief program, has been developed and constructed to help populations overcome war trauma, using different activities within art, entertainment and sports.  Theorists claim that if conducted properly, activities such as these, should lead to good social capital, causing higher levels of culture tolerance, gender equality and creativity, as well as better health and life satisfaction. This study has examined how the non-governmental organization, the Cross Cultural Project Association’s relief program, the Open Fun Football Schools has affected its participants in Belgrade, Serbia. A quantitative analysis has been conducted through the means of a multi question survey, to see if certain variables are correlated with the projects influence, “OFFS social capital”. According to the results, the activities did have positive effects on education, culture tolerance, gender equality, creativity, heath and life satisfaction. In addition the social capital influenced by the activities was found to be dependent on participants’ level of culture tolerance, and vice versa. The project is found to set the foundation for good social networking possibilities and create good social capital, all great aspects for the purpose of peace building.

In the nineteen nineties, former Yugoslavia, went through a series of interstitial disputes, both religious and political, which evolved into hatred amongst its own people and ultimately into an unforgiving civil war. Rising demonstrations of the groups with different religious and cultural views within the country’s boundaries amalgamated into a war which divided the state into separate countries and left many cities and villages in despair, economic desolation and poverty. Although some have been directly affected by the physical casualties of war, others have suffered indirectly. One of the villages affected is Ruski Kerestur, found in the Republic of Serbia where more than ninety percent of the residents are non-Serbian. Many of its people fled the country due to political and economic uncertainties. This minority group is of the Carpatho-Rusyn decent which are the heart and soul of the village. Inspired by personal motive and desire to heal communities in distress, this thesis presents an opportunity to reconcile Carpatho-Rusyn people from the social diaspora in attempt to reclaim their national identity and give them the courage to persist on and continue the cultural legacy that has been nurtured for generations. Leaning on the speculation that ‘a spirit in people and belief in the future comes from the very foundation of a building’; it utilizes an architectural intervention as basis to conceive a quintessential communal space that redefines social and practical functions necessary for cultivating Rusyn traditions, ethics and domestic values. To develop an understanding of their public realm, the thesis dips into the crevices of time searching for Carpatho-Rusyn progress of development and migratory movement from their homeland in the Carpathian Mountains to the present day conditions. It tends to explore the idea of ‘adaptation’, the ideology that defines an architectural type through the process of transformation and negotiation of a community and its direct effect on public space, urban system and architectonic form. These theories will become a kernel for producing a useful and meaningful civic landmark that will strengthen the spirit of people giving hope and new life to the wounded village. The new ‘living monument’, Carpatho-Rusyn Art Gallery and Reconciliation Centre, presents a new gateway for Ruski Kerestur and its people into the healthy future shedding light on their moral values which were tamed for centuries by wars, ethnic cleansing and inexorable conviction of their non existence. The design proposal reintroduces a Rusyn way to the world and echoes the emotion of pride which permeates every Rusyn soul.

The war between the Peruvian state and the Maoist Shining Path rebels began in the Department of Ayacucho, an area with a majority of indigenous Quechua- speaking peasant villages. After twenty years of violence (1980-2000), this region of South America’s Andes began a critical period of demilitarization, refugee resettlement, and reconciliation. In this transition, the rebuilding of villages devastated by the war raises critical questions about indigenous autonomy, citizenship, and the role of international human rights initiatives in local reconciliation. I examine the tensions between interventions by national and transnational organizations, and the insecurities that continue to define everyday life in villages like Wiracocha - a newly resurrected community that was in the heart of the war zone.1 Based on eighteen months of fieldwork in this village and ten months of comparative fieldwork in villages across the Ayacucho region and in the city of Huamanga, my research shows that villagers were often at odds with the aid and interventions offered to them from the outside. I focus on the complicated nature of village war history, paying attention to the initial sympathy with Shining Path and the village's later decision to join the counterinsurgency. In Ayacucho, memory has itself become a site of struggle that reveals as much about present-day conflict, ambivalences, and insecurities of neoliberal Peru as it does about the actual history 1 Wiracocha is a pseudonym that I am using in order to maintain subject confidentiality. of the war. Villagers sometimes oppose official memory projects and humanitarian initiatives - including Peru's Truth Commission - that that they see at odds with their own visions and agendas. Finally, I examine the less predictable ways that villagers have redefined what it means to be Andean, including: the maintenance of village militarization, a return to hard-handed customary justice and the adoption of bornagain Christianity as a new form of moral order and social solidarity. / Dissertation

<p>The aim of this thesis is to formulate and implement an algorithm that calculates the probability for two genes being orthologs, given a gene tree and a species tree. To do this, reconciliations between the gene tree and the species trees are used. A birth and death process is used to model the evolution, and used to calculate the orthology probability. The birth and death parameters are approximated with a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC). A MCMC framework for probability calculations of reconciliations written by Arvestad et al. (2003) is used. Rules for orthologous reconciliations are developed and implemented to calculate the probability for the reconciliations that have two genes as orthologs. The rules where integrated with the Arvestad et al. (2003) framework, and the algorithm was then validated and tested.</p>

<p>In this essay I argue that the plot in Sunrise with Sea Monster, written by Irish writer Neil Jordan, is based on the Oedipal myth, such as interpreted by Freud and psychoanalyst literary theory. By applying aspects of this theory we discover meanings buried within the novel. The Oedipus situation arises when the main character Donal falls in love with his piano teacher Rose, but so does his father, who decides to marry her. The desire both men have for the same woman creates a conflict of interest, as well as leading to a series of betrayals, of which the worst and ultimate one is of the father, Sam, by the son, Donal. The situation is not helped further by the lack of communication which exists between the two men. When the Oedipal stage is overcome, when both Rose and Sam are out of the picture, this leads to a sort of reconciliation between Sam and Donal. Betrayal and reconciliation are the two main themes and these are governed by the Oedipal framework of the novel. I also argue that the imagery, in particular that of water and what it is connected to adds depth to the novel as well as closely relating to the main themes and the Oedipal background: the diverse aspects of the Oedipal conflict are expressed symbolically, metaphorically etc. in the novel.</p>

Thesis (D. Min.)--Ashland Theological Seminary, 2007. / Abstract . Description based on microfiche version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 138, 143-148).

Thesis (D. Min.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2008. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 277-293).

Thesis (M.A.P.S.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [89]-91).

Thesis (D. Min.)--New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes abstract and vita. "November 2002." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 148-154).

Thesis (M.A.)--Catholic Theological Union at Chicago, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-200).