<p> The purpose of this grant proposal was to develop a program, identify potential funding sources, and write a grant to fund an Afghan domestic violence program that offers culturally competent services to Afghan women survivors of domestic violence in the San Francisco Bay Area. An extensive literature review was conducted to explore how culture affects perceptions of domestic violence within immigrant communities and the ways in which those perceptions can impede access to domestic violence intervention services. Findings show that while violence against women in Afghan culture is a serious problem, awareness about and services for Afghan women and families in the United States for domestic violence are virtually nonexistent. The proposed program will provide Afghan-specific domestic violence direct services, raise community awareness and train mainstream providers on cultural competency. The actual submission and/or funding of this grant proposal were not requirements for the successful completion of this project.</p>

<p> This dissertation examines the civic experiences of women before, during and after the January 25, 2011 Uprising in Egypt in an attempt to explore this group's perception of what encouraged or discouraged them from engaging civically. Two questions guide this investigation. How do Egyptian women with a social studies background narrate their civic experiences before, during and after the January 25 Uprising? And to what extent have the K-12 citizenship education and related policies impacted the civic engagement of these future teachers before, during and after the Uprising? </p><p> Inspired by the works of Dewey, Freire and hook, this study views education as key in developing engaged citizens. Schools represent the society and are responsible for cultivating future generations. The experiences students have influences their knowledge and attitudes as citizens. This study traces the impact of education, school environment, and the society in general on empowering women to have a voice, engage in the community, and make political choices. </p><p> Data were collected in Egypt in 2013 amid much instability but at a time when Egyptians had to put their civic duty first and make many political choices. Twenty-two women took part in face-to-face semi-structured interviews. The participant pool included teachers of social studies, graduate students of social studies education or history, and undergraduate students majoring in a social studies related field. Additional sources of data included, non-participant observations, document analysis, and field notes. </p><p> Using grounded theory to analyze and interpret the data; findings reveal that societal norms and school practices have limited the participants' choices and led the women to believe that their voices were silenced. However, the data also reflects strong human agency that the women exhibited consciously and unconsciously. Through intensive fieldwork, this dissertation sets the groundwork for future studies targeting education and women in the Middle East. It offers intellectual space for a much-needed conversation on educational policies, citizenship education, democracy, and women status in the Middle East.</p>

<p> This thesis presents a description of the system of pronominal clitics in the Logar dialect of Ormuri, an Iranian language of Afghanistan and Pakistan. The Logar dialect is based in the Logar province of Afghanistan and is near to extinction. The thesis studies grammatical constraints on the occurrence of pronominal clitics in Ormuri sentences. It also investigates discourse factors that influence when a pronominal clitic is used to refer to an entity in the situation that is being talked about, rather than a noun, an independent pronoun, or zero anaphora. My analysis is based on a corpus consisting of fifty-five narrative texts told by Ormuri men and women in Afghanistan in the 1970s, collected and compiled separately by V. A. Efimov and Charles Kieffer. Each text was analysed with special attention to where, when, and how the pronominal clitics were used. Participant reference was analysed using the Default/Marked method described in Dooley and Levinsohn (2001).</p><p> Within a clause, Ormuri pronominal clitics may function as subject, object, possessor, or indirect object. A clitic functioning as possessor appears immediately after the possessed constituent. When functioning as subject, object, or indirect object, pronominal clitics are generally placed immediately after the first phrasal constituent of the clause. In some cases, a clitic may be co-referential with a sentence-initial noun phrase that functions as a subject or object argument. When, in this way, a pronominal clitic "doubles" a noun phrase occurring earlier in the clause, the clitic appears after the second, rather than the first, phrasal constituent of the sentence.</p><p> In present-tense clauses, an object argument can be encoded as a pronominal clitic, but a subject argument cannot be. In past-tense clauses, on the other hand, the subject argument of a transitive verb can be encoded as a pronominal clitic, but its object cannot be. This asymmetrical distribution of pronominal clitics in past- and present-tense clauses is a remnant of a more elaborate tense-based split-ergative system that must have existed in the past, and which still exists in the Kaniguram dialect in Pakistan.</p><p> Regarding the question as to when pronominal clitics (rather than nouns or other encodings) are selected to refer to participants in the discourse world, it was found that clitics are strongly preferred in contexts where they encode a reference to a participant that continues in the same grammatical role that it had in the previous clause or sentence.</p><p> The system of pronominal clitics in Logar Ormuri is similar to, albeit not identical to, the systems found in related languages, including Parachi, Persian, and Pashto.</p>

<p> My dissertation studies the uses of the notion of archive in post-war contemporary art practices around the Lebanese Civil Wars (1975-1990). After the wars, a group of artists from Lebanon began to collect data and produce documents that referenced the traces and memories of the conflict. These compilations metamorphosed into aesthetic projects that took archival-like forms. In this dissertation, I discuss the archival works of Walid Raad, Paola Yacoub/Michel Lasserre, Gilbert Hage, Jalal Toufic, Joanna Hadjithomas/Khalil Joreige, Lamia Joreige, Akram Zaatari, Rasha Salti/Ziad Antar and Marwan Rechmaoui. </p><p> This boom of art practices around memory and archives in Lebanon has opposed the politics of amnesia sponsored by the Lebanese state through the Amnesty Law of 1991. Post-war artists, however, have addressed this official amnesia not by seeking to reconstruct the historical facts and recover the real documentation of the wars; instead, they have activated the memories of the wars by exploring the very destruction of these memories. These artists have produced and at the same time deconstructed archives by assembling fragmented, fabricated, para-fictional, and decontextualized collections of photographs, videos, and everyday materials. I describe these practices as <i>ar(t)chive production</i> (or <i>archives-in-the-making</i>). </p><p> While the notion of archive is common in modern and contemporary art regarding trauma and memory, my hypothesis is that the archival works of these Lebanese artists are shaped by the new structural context of global war. Most European models of archive pursue a recovery of memory against the destruction in the total wars of the twentieth century, particularly exemplified by the artworks about the Holocaust. By contrast, the practices on the Lebanese Civil Wars engage in the logic of constructive destruction of what Carlo Galli has theorized as global war. Within this logic, violence is both destructive and productive. In this respect, instead of opposing the official amnesia by reviving the memories of the wars, the post-war Lebanese artists reflect on amnesia by showing the construction of the past by means of its own destruction.</p><p>

<p> In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the need for distance-learning programs in the universities has been gaining importance. Najran, the area in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, which this study addressed, has been the target of serious attacks against both the government and the civilian population in a recent conflict with Yemen. Because all areas of Najran have been targeted, including educational institutions, the ability for students to attend the university in recent years has been severely curtailed. While conflict prompted the study, there were, and are, other reasons for promoting distance learning in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The evidence gathered in this study exhibited the value of distance learning overall. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia could benefit greatly from distance learning programs in Najran and elsewhere due to limited space for classes, the need to shift away from the dependence on an oil economy, and the need to address both cultural and geographical factors such as providing an education to students in more rural locations, female students, and students unable to attend traditional classes due to the rapid growth of the student population. The research questions asked in the study addressed reshaping education in the war-stricken area of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia-Yemen border areas; the perceptions of teachers, students, and hiring authorities at the Civil Service Ministry of the affordances and constraints of distance learning; and the perception of the value of distance learning. A qualitative case-study methodology framed by the epistemology of constructivism was used. The study was carried out by conducting focus group interviews with teachers and students as well as with hiring authorities at the Civil Service Ministry. Three different data collection tools were used (focus group interviews, a research journal, and the gathering of artifacts). All three provided information regarding distance learning at the University of Najran and in the hiring of distance learning graduates in the City of Najran. The findings revealed the need for access, basic infrastructure, and interest in distance learning. To allow for the continued enhancement of technology, shifts in perception and greater collaboration to promote online education and employment of distance learning graduates in Najran, changes must take place.</p><p>

Abstract not available.

Through the analysis of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey with Islamist roots, this dissertation examines the relationship between “moderation” of religious political parties, i.e. moving towards programmatic positions compatible with liberal democracy and their ongoing mobilization practices. Based on data collected through fieldwork conducted in Turkey over 22 months, from September 2006 through June 2008, this study argues that the transformation of the Islamist party into a mass based center-right party in Turkey was possible to the extent that the AKP pursued “moderation” not only at the external level by moving towards a more accommodative stance vis-à-vis the other political actors and the regime, but also at the intra-party and grassroots levels. This transformation entailed re-drawing the boundaries between religion and politics through efforts to forge a “conservative democratic” party identity within the mass organizational network it has inherited from its predecessors and to develop multiple modes of linkages between the party and mass base moving away from religious mobilization, reconciling the principles of secularism, nationalism and liberal economic policies with its constituents religious sensibilities. AKP’s effort in developing a more inclusive and representative party involved structural transformation through new recruitment patterns, constructing a new party genealogy and diffusing a new symbolic and discursive structure through training and other intra-party activities as well as through the everyday practices of the local party units and municipalities. By continuing to rely on the diffuse Islamic networks for filling the important party positions, the AKP sought to retain its Islamic credentials while shedding Islamic insignia (except for the women’s headscarves), ending gender segregation, incorporating more women into the party’s administrative cadres. At the local level, through its grassroots organizing structure, the AKP has been able to continue to carry on its strong social embeddedness. The AKP’s base units working with the local municipality run by the party communicated the AKP government’s policy positions that dramatically differed from its predecessors without Islamic justification, but instead worked as a liaison between the state and the local constituency, delivering constituency-service effectively through its social service provision and cultural activities.

<p> This dissertation examines how transnationalism can affect Islamists&rsquo; moderation in both Egypt and Morocco. In this dissertation, I do an in-depth comparative case study analysis to assess the prospects of moderation of two Islamists political entities, the Muslim Brotherhood as a transnational social movement and the Morocco Party of Justice and Development (JDP), which has no transnational ties. Both the Muslim Brotherhood and PJD came to power after the Arab uprising in 2011 and were key players in the democratic transitions in both countries; however, the entities are not related. Further, the dissertation will explore the moderation level of the Muslim Brotherhood and PJD. Current literature on Islamists and moderation theory focuses on political inclusion, political learning and repression as factors that would affect the moderation of an Islamist group. Looking at Islamists as a transnational social movement is a new aspect in the study of Islamism. Recently, scholars have addressed the transnational aspect of Islamist social movements; however, these studies focused on radical Islamist groups such as Al Qaeda. To date, there has been no study to assess how transnationalism can affect the moderation level of Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood. This dissertation attempts to fill that gap by assessing the moderation level of the transnational Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt and the Justice and Development Party in Morocco. Furthermore, extant studies have ignored transnational <i> identity</i> in conceptualizing &ldquo;Trans<i><u>national </u></i>ism&rdquo;. My dissertation corrects this gap by bringing this new element into consideration. In addition, most of the research conducted on the Muslim Brotherhood stops at 2012. My dissertation gives in-depth examination of the development of events up until February, 2015.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to observe the correlation between ethnic identity and gender as well as the relationship between ethnic identity and one&rsquo;s country of origin. The study participants (n=335) were recruited through the social media sites Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, and Reddit. Participants completed the 15-question Multigroup Ethnic Inventory Measure (MEIM) and a Demographic Questionnaire, all done completely online. It was hypothesized that participants&rsquo; level of ethnic identity as measured by MEIM scores would differ significantly between the genders. Furthermore, it was posited that participant&rsquo;s level of ethnic identity would differ significantly between countries of origin. Both hypotheses were supported. Implications of the study findings and recommendations for future research are discussed. </p>

<p> What explains variation over time in how states treat &ldquo;non-core groups&rdquo;? What are the reasons for co-opting, accommodating, or politically excluding them? Drawing on insights in ethnic politics and international relations, a recent body of literature claims that interstate relations and foreign policy ought to drive state decision making toward externally linked groups. Yet, I observe outcomes that suggest that when regimes perceive a higher threat to internal regime security than they do to their territorial borders, domestic politics is more important in driving regime decision making toward such groups. In such situations, even if non-core groups are supported by unfriendly external powers, I argue that regimes decide to accommodate, accommodate and co-opt, or politically exclude such groups based on their location in the architecture of the opposition&mdash;the numerical strength and diversity of identities in the opposition that threaten the regime in power. The causal mechanism for this relationship is the perception of proximate threats to regime security from political opposition, with larger, crosscutting oppositional configurations posing a bigger threat than smaller, homogenous opposition. I also argue that regimes prefer non-core groups to &ldquo;stay in their lane&rdquo;, that is, that they remain narrowly political in regards to pursuing goods from the state related to their identity.</p><p> This dissertation employs an in-depth, single case study of one group in the same country over time, testing the finding in a secondary country using a most similar systems approach. The case of Kuwait&rsquo;s treatment of its Shi&lsquo;a from 1963 through 2011 serves as the in-depth case study, and uses data gathered from seventy interviews during half a year of fieldwork in Kuwait City in 2013, in addition to documents from the British National Archives and Arabic media. I also briefly compare outcomes in policies toward the Shi&lsquo;a to policies toward the stateless residents and expatriates. Insights from the Kuwaiti case are tested on the secondary case of Bahrain to explain regime treatment of the Shi&lsquo;a from 1973 through 2011. I also suggest that the theory may be extrapolated to explain the variation in recent relations between the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the non-core Kurds in Turkey. The findings crack open the black box of ethnic politics in semi-authoritarian regimes, helping to explain variation&mdash;and some counter-intuitive co-optation&mdash;in cases in which we might expect more exclusion in general.</p>