Master thesis entitled "The Israeli Druze: Military Service as a Tool to Influence Domestic and Foreign Policy" regards the relations of the Israeli Druze Community and the State of Israel. Druze people live also in Lebanon and Syria and are usually categorized as an ethno-religious and transnational group. They are distinctive for their secretive and esoteric religion and tightly-knit social bonds. The Israeli Druze community (composing less than 2 % of the Israeli population) is specific for its mandatory service in the Israeli Defense Forces, which marks a difference from other Arabic speaking citizens of Israel. The service in the Israeli army implies that the Israeli Druze people are loyal both to the state and the transnational Druze community. Using the framework of a theoretical concept of Strategic Military Refusal by Udi Lebel, the goal of the thesis is to examine whether the Israeli Druze community was able to influence domestic and foreign policy of the State of Israel in order to reach its own political goals, whether these efforts were intentional, strategic and successful. Alongside, it is also identified which factors may influence the loyalty of the Israeli Druzes towards the State of Israel. To achieve this goal, two cases are analyzed: 1) the reaction of the Israeli Druze...

CHARLES UNIVERSITY FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES INSTITUTE OF POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS Islamic terrorism in US film: how we construct our own enemies Master's thesis Author: Bc. Anna Kotvalová Study programme: International Relations Supervisor: Mgr. Jakub Záhora, Ph.D. Year of the defense: 2019 ABSTRACT The presented diploma thesis is concerned with the discourse and narratives of the phenomenon of terrorism in the American cinema, produced after 9/11 and its reflection on the events within the War on Terror. This thesis rests on two major theoretical realms, Critical terrorism studies and the interconnection between popular culture and the world of politics. This thesis addresses three American mainstream films produced after 9/11, Zero Dark Thirty, Lone Survivor and American Sniper in order to analyse the discourse and narratives which refer to the antagonists in these movies (more specifically, the discourse and narratives which portrays justification for the American behaviour within the War on Terror) and to address the political consequences of this kind of discourse. This thesis defines four major repetitive patterns in the discourse: humanization of the "American side", dehumanization of the antagonists, depiction of torture and violence and lack of context and concludes...

Bibliografický záznam ORAVCOVÁ, Anna. Česká hiphopová subkultura: konstrukce autenticity v českém rapu. Praha, 2019. 171 s. Dizertační práce (Ph.D.) Univerzita Karlova, Fakulta sociálních věd, Institut sociologických studií. Katedra sociologie. Školitelka: PhDr. Marta Kolářová, Ph.D. Abstract The dissertation focuses on the construction of authenticity in Czech rap music. It seeks to explore attributes based on which one can define a certain rap expression as the "real" one. The theoretical part includes the definition of the term subculture, main attributes of hip hop (sub)culture, and the definition of authenticity, the key concept of the dissertation. In dialogue with the findings of the hip hop studies of Western countries, this dissertation looks at the authenticity claims expressed in Czech rap music and the context and situations in which the question of authenticity of Czech rappers becomes important. The empirical part of the dissertation is based on the perspective of the insider research using a combination of qualitative methods: (1) semi structured interviews with twenty rappers (one of them female); (2) qualitative content analysis of selected rap lyrics; and (3) participant observation at different hip hop events. The research took place between 2010 and 2016. The research shows that Czech...

Diplomová práce je zaměřena na téma homosexuality a LGBT diskurzu v 90. letech v ČR prostřednictvím analýzy časopisu Promluv. V teoretické části jsou představeny stěžejní koncepty a teoretická východiska, která při zkoumání konceptu homosexuality obecně není možné z genderového hlediska opomenout. Dále je téma zasazeno do historického kontextu. Empirická část zahrnuje kromě popisu metodologie také diskurzivní analýzu časopisu Promluv. Cílem práce je zjistit, zda a jak se časopis Promluv vymezoval převládajícím diskurzům týkajících se politiky identit, sexuality a feminismu. Analytická část je rozdělena do pěti oblastí výzkumu. Klíčová slova: homosexualita, diskurz, gender, identita, sexualita, heteronormativita ABSTRACT The diploma thesis is focused on the topic of homosexuality and the LGBT discourse in the Czech Republic during the 1990s through the analysis of Promluv the magazine. The theoretical part introduces the fundamental concepts and theoretical basis which cannot be left out when analysing the concept of homosexuality from the gender view-point. Apart from the description of methodology, the empirical part of the thesis includes the discursive analysis of the magazine. The aim of the thesis is to determine whether and how the magazine opposed the predominant discourses concerning the...

of Master thesis Russia's Syria policy: geopolitical interests or defense of great power identity? Marcel Hirling Abstract: Russia has been the dominating actor in Syria since the outbreak of the civil war in 2011. Researchers disagree what Russia motivates to block UN resolutions, support Assad, and intervene militarily in 2015. Academics have mainly focused on neorealist explanations. Constructivist arguments have been shortcoming so far as they miss a detailed theoretical justification and empirical evidence. This thesis aims to fill this gap by arguing that the objective utility of Syria is marginal. Instead, Syria provided Russia the opportunity to present itself as a global power, able to shape world affairs on eye level with the US. Therefore, this paper conducts a congruence analysis, which evaluates each theory's explanatory power. The analytical section is split into three parts. The first shows that events before Syria did not make a Russian intervention in Syria necessary, but that recognition of Russia's global power identity has been denied. That Russia's actions in Syria are not entirely congruent with neorealist expectations is shown by the second part. Finally, by conducting a content-analysis, several Russian narratives are evaluated that support the argument that Russia seeks...

THE ABSTRACT The subject of this thesis is the issue of Croatian identity and their acculturation after having left their homeland and arriving to the South Cone states, with the emphasis on Argentina and Chile - the countries which host the biggest number of Croats. The aim of this thesis was to find out if Croatians accustomed to living in the new continent, what were the difficulties which they encountered, whether they contributed to the society in any way, and how the descendants of the immigrants are doing today. The emigrational phases from the territory of today's Croatia are analyzed chronologically - beginning with the first, mostly individual, emigrations in the 15th and 16th century to other European countries, and continuing with the first mass migrations in the late 19th century, towards the mostly political ones in the first half of the 20th century. Despite the great distance, very different language, and distinct traditions and customs, Croats in Argentina and Chile gradually accustomed since first migrations until today, passed through almost all phases of getting used to their new lives - they started by living on the margins and in their so- called colonies, but continued adapting and acclimatizing until they have slowly assimilated (which is the mostly visible in the subtle...

From pioneer times of C. W. Ceram on, many media-archaeology scholars' attention was attracted by on of the most monumental apparatuses - a panorama. Like in a case of many other optical toys, the panorama contains several phenomena of film medium a long time before its invention. In addition to that, the panorama is considered to be the first form of mass entertainment ever. All of its characteristics were defined already by Robert Barker, a British painter and an inventor of the panoramic painting. Contrary to an original way of its commercial exhibiting, a group of panoramas of the late 19th century was produced in a context of nationalist movements in Central Europe. This very group of panoramas is the main object of this thesis. Its main goal is to define an emancipatory-patriotic panorama as a specific media genre. Furthermore, related problems of media constancy, collective identity, and memory spaces are examined.

The diploma thesis focuses on the perception of family, upbringing and parenthood from the perspective of fathers. The theoretical part of the thesis introduces key definitions and theoretical conceptions related to family, childrearing, parenthood and fatherhood, including historical changes in the perception of these concepts. Furthermore, functions of the family, the diversity of family roles, and relationships between family members are discussed in the context of current knowledge about gender aspects of family systems. The empirical part of the thesis is based on qualitative research design. The aim of the empirical part is to explore via in-depth interviews with young fathers how these fathers perceive and experience their role as fathers, whether and how they perceive social changes of the father's role and how they relate to these changes.

(in English): The aim of this diploma thesis is to analyse the Dominican identity in the works of the Dominican author Marcio Veloz Maggiolo. At first, the thesis briefly summarizes the evolution of the Dominican literature and mentions its most significant figures. Secondly, it deals with the evolution of the dominicaness from the colonial period up to the present and explains the reasons of the rooted antihaitianism. The second part consists of a detailed analysis of the novels The Diffuse Biography of Sombra Castañeda and The Accordion Man by Marcio Veloz Maggiolo, emphasizing the symbols of the official government's discourse, and also a more opened perspective of the dominicaness.

Cultural Memory and its functions in the case of Božena Němcová The presented thesis is concerned with the topic of the construction of the portrayal of Božena Němcová and its functions in the cultural memory. Regarding the question of Božena Němcová's portrayal, this thesis is focused on the construction of gender identities in the remembering process. The influence of mediality of given representation on the process of gender identity construction is also explored here. The examination of the function of Božena Němcová's portrayal in the cultural memory is based on its intertextuality. The intertextuality is in this thesis understood as a valency plurality of Božena Němcová's portrayal in relation to other figures and themes of the cultural memory canon. The analyses in this paper is based on the concept of Cultural Memory Studies (Jan Assmann, Astrid Erll, Aleida Assmann), and Gender Studies (Judith Butler). There are different types of sources examined in this paper (textbooks, film, literature, press, social media), arranged from the present to the past. Key words: Božena Němcová, canon, cultural memory, mediality, gender identity