Thesiss

The purpose of this thesis was to examine if Palestinian Women in the Diaspora demonstrate political agency to preserve the Palestinian ethnic and nationalistic identities. Historical and modern-day accounts are analyzed in evaluating the motivations of Palestinian Women’s polit…

According to the Pew Research Center (2021) Asian Americans were the fastest growing racial or ethnic group between 2000–2019. More specifically there are 4.2. million Filipinos in the U.S. as of 2019 and are the 3rd largest Asian population within the U.S. (Pew Research Center,…

This thesis examines Democratic and Republican party platforms over the 1980–2016 period in a content analysis to test claims of partisanship increasing on identity lines in American politics. As a key issue facing democracies in recent years, polarization has coincided with cha…

In this dissertation, I explore how crossing national borders has made me aware of the many identity borders that I have crossed as a transnational Chinese, and how I am caught up in identity politics between the “Chinese,” who do not necessarily always identify as “Chinese” in …

The purpose of this research study was to develop an understanding of how male adolescents of African descent made sense of their identities as they reacted to culturally affirming African images. A visual methodology of photo-elicitation was utilized to explore the themes that …

This historic case study explores individual dancing bodies in Israel, Brazil, and West Germany throughout years of reframing nationality and nation. The socio-political group contains members who share a common agenda and values. They define themselves by creating their own gro…

This dissertation explores the role of the Guatemalan National Police, from 1954 to 1985, as an institution that in the context of the country’s armed conflict and dirty war, became a key part of the machinery of brutality and violence of the Guatemalan State. The work approache…

Emerging adults show declining participation in organized religion and increasing spirituality, a finding that has occupied researchers for decades. This paper suggests that the source of this puzzling trend is the religious identity development emerging adults pursue. In order …

This qualitative study conducted over a 14-month period examined how teachers and students' identities influenced their learning and implementation of design thinking processes in conjunction with their technology use in urban classrooms. Design thinking is a learning approach t…

The aim of this dissertation is to analyze the role of collective memory in the European 'postnational' constellation. In nation-building processes, the construction of a common past has played a well documented role in fostering notions of a collective political actor. If Europ…

Strategic planning is a systematic process for designing the future of an organization. Such planning usually focuses on enhancing the quality of teaching, increasing research opportunities, and fostering community partnerships in higher education institutions (Leland & Moore, 2…

Trajan conquered Dacia in 106 CE and encouraged one of the largest colonization efforts in the history of the Roman Empire. The new province was rich in natural resources. Immigrants from Dalmatia, Moesia, Noricum, Pannonia, Greece, Syria, Bithynia, Italy, indigenous Dacians, an…

This dissertation project examines the lived experiences of immigrant and second-generation Iranian immigrants to uncover the factors that shape their perceptions of belonging in two differ western nations. It is a qualitative methods study that utilized in-depth interviews. I a…

This study examines the lived experience of Sufi spiritual teachings and practices of first and second-generation Iranian-American young adults. The study explored the effect Sufi spiritual teachings and practices may have on the way these young adults deal with challenges and d…

It is customary for postcolonial biblical critics to dismiss the book of Exodus as the tale of a tyrannical and genocidal deity. The following dissertation attempts to correct this impulse by redeploying the postcolonial approach in a way that seeks to more authentically realize…

This dissertation questions the making of the Israeli distinction between Arabs and Jews through the eyes of 3-6 year old children in a bilingual preschool program in the city of Be'er Sheva. The primary method used is a year-long ethnography of the school, consisting of partici…

This manuscript presents empirical and analytical analysis and discussion of security and privacy laws. The introduction, together with the three substantive chapters each represent separate research papers written as partial fulfillment of my PhD dissertation in the Heinz Colle…

This study focuses on the education of students who have been adopted internationally and are now learning English in school. Teachers typically have little training for—or experience with—working with these learners. Largely an unstudied area, this dissertation aims to shed lig…

Immigrant youth living in new immigration countries such as Spain stand at the intersection of competing discourses and policies, their unexpected presence in schools and society opening up dilemmas and debates related to questions of difference, belonging, and identity. This di…

Scholarship on the history of modern India has associated Banaras Hindu University, founded in 1915, with the rise of Hindu nationalism. The intentions of the Pandit Malaviya, probably the most well-known promoter of Hinduism, to foster Hindu identity and unity at BHU have been …