Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, American Culture Studies

This dissertation explores the role of democracy promotion in US foreign intervention with a particular focus on the weaponization of media and civil society by two important US democracy promotion institutions, the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US Agency for International Development (USAID). Focusing on these two institutions and building on scholarship that takes a critical Gramscian Marxist perspective on US democracy promotion, this study brings media imperialism and deep political scholarship into the conversation. Delimiting the study to focus on US activities, I trace historical patterns of intellectual warfare and exceptional states of violence and lawlessness pursued by the US government in case studies of foreign intervention in which democracy promotion has played an important part since 1983. I survey the evolution of elite US Cold War conceptions of managed democracy as well as transformations of covert Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) media and civil society operations into institutionalized, pseudo-overt US democracy promotion that became a foundational pretext and method for US interventionism post-Cold War. Case studies include the Contra War in 1980s Nicaragua, Operation Cyclone in 1980s Afghanistan, the 2000 overthrow of Yugoslavian president Slobodan Milosevic, the 2002 military coup against Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, the 2004 coup against Haitian president Bertrand Aristide, and the 2014 Euromaidan Coup against Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych. I dedicate the penultimate chapter to US-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011, demonstrating how USAID provided instrumental monetary, media, and civil society support to primarily sectarian, theocratic, Salafi rebels against the Ba'athist government. Throughout the dissertation, I argue that the NED and USAID represent important engines of intellectual warfare in US foreign intervention, mobilizing communications and organizational resources to reinf (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Cynthia Baron Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Oliver Boyd-Barrett Ph.D. (Committee Member); Radhika Gajjala Ph.D. (Committee Member); Alexis Ostrowski Ph.D. (Other) Subjects: American History; American Studies; East European Studies; History; International Relations; Journalism; Latin American History; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Middle Eastern History; Military History; Military Studies; Modern History; Peace Studies; Political Science; Public Policy; Regional Studies; World History

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Music

Following the large-scale migration of Syrian refugees to Europe in 2015, German music organizations and professional Syrian refugee musicians established intercultural music activities throughout the country. Ethnographic inquiry reveals that these activities develop under the pressure of a variety of social and political forces. Systemic racial inequities in Western Europe have shaped supranational and national intercultural policies, as well as the German public, to visually and sonically perceive Syrian refugees as non-European Others. Professional musicians Aeham Ahmad and the Syrian Expat Philharmonic Orchestra perform musics that defy generic classifications that categorize people by race or place of origin. Yet German media consistently ties these musicians' performances to their refugee status and relation to the “Orient.” Within this network of intercultural activities, three amateur ensembles in Hamburg differ in choosing to be open to all refugees regardless of background, or exclude refugees based on Western perceptions of musical skill. This dissertation finds that integration through intercultural music-making in northern Germany is a process that Germans sometimes use to distinguish themselves from racialized refugees. Even so, Syrian professional musicians and amateur ensembles resist essentialized identities and model more equitable and compassionate ways to welcome refugees through intercultural music performance.

Committee: Danielle Fosler-Lussier (Advisor); Ryan T. Skinner (Committee Member); Johanna Sellman (Committee Member) Subjects: European History; European Studies; History; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Studies; Music

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, Interdisciplinary Arts (Fine Arts)

This dissertation investigates the works, thoughts, and practices of everyday life of a diverse range of emerging contemporary Syrian artists and filmmakers who created art during the Syrian crisis since 2011. Some stayed in Syria. Others fled the country. Some engaged in armed resistance or political activism. Others lost their lives. This dissertation is primarily concerned with how these individuals created art that reflected the everyday life of Syrians throughout the crisis. The focus on everyday life is crucial because it shifts scholarly attention on the Syrian crisis away from the war itself and onto the overlooked Syrians who are creatively trying to survive it. Drawing on interviews, aesthetic analysis, and participant-observation, I argue that Syrian artists try to reclaim the Syrian identity and homeland concepts back to their cultural heritages and away from political or war realities. In addition, I discuss a new model of the Syrian body of survival and its representations based on its transformations between different modes of survival practices. This dissertation seeks to enrich art history, Performance Studies, and scholarly approaches to the Syrian crisis by positioning Syrian art as a global and contemporary art phenomenon and by documenting, preserving, analyzing, and presenting its artists to the international public. It pays particular attention to Syrian art's local, regional, and global specificity while also considering how the artworks and films are produced, distributed, and presented across international art arenas. The ultimate goal of this dissertation is to clarify what it means to be Syrian today, a concept that has been mostly unrepresented, misrepresented, or distorted by stereotyping.

Committee: Charles Buchanan (Advisor); Garrett Field (Committee Member); Erin Schlumpf (Committee Member); Jennie Klein (Committee Member) Subjects: Art Criticism; Art History; Film Studies; Fine Arts; Middle Eastern Studies; Performing Arts

Master of Arts in History, Youngstown State University, 2022, Department of Humanities

The Middle East has historically been a region of the world where peace has been hard to achieve. Nations and populations, such as Israel, Syria, and Palestinians, have been at odds since the end of the Second World War. The United States showed great interest in the Middle East following the Second World War, making them an important part of the historical narrative there as well. This thesis looks primarily at the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically through the career of Arlen Specter, a former United States Senator from Pennsylvania who served from 1981 to 2011. Facilitated mainly by primary source material from Senator Specter's career, this thesis illuminates the work of an often-forgotten politician who was very active in Middle Eastern politics. Specter saw Syria as an integral part of any prospect of peace between Israel and Palestine, and this thesis analyzes his personal efforts to develop relations with Syrian and Palestinian leaders in the hopes of achieving peace between Israel and Palestine, as well as between Israel and Syria. Overall, Specter's perspectives and actions work together to reveal a unique and nuanced approach to the Middle East that saw the importance of Syria, a nation that has been ostracized from the United States since 1979, in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. The project begins with a historical narrative of Israel, Palestine, and Syria. Specter then becomes the focus, and his actions and work in and pertaining to the Middle East are examined, revealing Specter's uniqueness.

Committee: David Simonelli PhD (Advisor); Jacob Labendz PhD (Committee Member); Martha Pallante PhD (Committee Member); Adam Fuller PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: History; International Relations; Middle Eastern History; Modern History; World History

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2021, International and Comparative Politics

This study identifies three tactics authoritarian leaders use to attempt to effectively coerce their citizens without losing power: 1) performance legitimacy, 2) nationalist legitimacy, and 3) institutional legitimacy. To demonstrate these tactics of what I call “coercive effectiveness,” the author employs a most-different-systems analysis on the regimes of Xi Jinping (2012 2015) and Bashar al-Assad (2000-2004). The author finds that coercion is more likely to be effective under the following conditions: 1) when leaders use economic performance and institutionalist strategies rather than nationalist tactics, 2) when an authoritarian leader climbs the ladder to power rather than inheriting leadership and 3) when a regime is structured around the party rather than those centered on an individual leader. These findings allow policy makers to make more informed decisions for interacting with leaders. For example, the more that a regime centralizes its power, the more likely they will lose their grip on coercion by making themselves the sole target for blame.

Committee: Laura Luehrmann Ph.D. (Advisor); Pramod Kantha Ph.D. (Committee Member); Vaughn Shannon Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Comparative; International Relations; Middle Eastern History; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Wright State University, 2021, International and Comparative Politics

This study examined the catalysts for social movements around the globe; specifically, why and how the Arab Spring uprisings led to regime change in Tunisia, why they transformed into civil war in some countries of the Middle East and North Africa (Syria), and why they did not lead to significant change at all in other places (Bahrain). The overall results of the study confirmed that political and socio-economic grievances caused the Arab uprisings in Tunisia, Bahrain, and Syria. Tunisian protesters succeeded in regime change because of a united and structured social movement leading to an effective transitional democracy in the country, whereas Syria and Bahrain used their coercive apparatus, with the help of foreign intervention, to suppress demonstrators. Thus, on the Syrian side, protests transformed into civil war. Keywords: Arab Spring; Bahrain; Middle East and North Africa; Protests; Regime change; Social Movements; Syria; Transitional Democracy; and Tunisia.

Committee: Shannon Vaughn Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Liam Anderson Ph.D. (Committee Member); Awad Halabi Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Cross-Cultural, International Education

Beginning in 2011, the Syrian Conflict caused the widespread displacement of over five million people and caused a steep rise in the number of asylum seekers entering the European Union. Chancellor Angela Merkel adopted a controversial open-door policy in the summer 2015 that lifted previous quotas on the number of refugees that could enter Germany (Liebe, Meyerhoff, Kroesen, Chorus, and Glenk, 2018). This policy decision has led to an increase in the presence of Syrian refugee students in Germany public schools, particularly in regions that are less accepting of refugees and foreigners. This study examines the research question: how do German teacher candidates understand their role in the lives of the secondary school-aged Syrian refugees now present in German classrooms? Bourdieu's (1973) social and cultural capital theory and Bronfenbrenner's (1977) ecological systems theory provide a framework for my study and allow me to examine the ways in which German teacher candidates assess this phenomenon and identify critical forms of support that Syrian refugee students need. I collected data from eleven individual interviews with teacher candidates from a university in Dresden and coded the data to assess overarching themes that helped to answer the research question. The data suggest that German teacher candidates see themselves primarily as language instructors and cultural guidance counselors for Syrian refugee students, regardless of their content area or educational background. Major impediments exist in fulfilling these roles, namely in the forms of wide-spread racism and anti-refugee sentiment throughout Germany, difficulty in identifying the specific needs of Syrian refugee students, and a lack of training targeting work with refugee students in general.

Committee: Bruce Collet Dr. (Advisor); Christy Galletta-Horner Dr. (Committee Member); Christina Guenther Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Education Policy; European Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2019, History

This thesis places the Iraq War and its aftermath (2003-2014) within the framework of borderlands scholarship. The interdisciplinary approach used in this work makes new connections between borderlands history, particularly in the context of North America, and places it within the context of the modern Middle East. By expanding upon abstract notions ofpower in the frontier, this work explores the different perspectives, experiences, and goals of Iraq's tribal community in al-Anbar Province, the U.S.-led Coalition, and al-Qaʿida in Iraq and its successor organizations to argue that these groups failed to fill the vacuum of authority thatemerged in Iraq after 2003 with their own respective visions for the country's future. This workutilizes Richard Whites concept of “the middle ground” to explore how these groups negotiatedand competed with one another for hegemony, creating the political realities of post-2003 Iraq.

Committee: Matthew Gordon (Advisor); Nathan French (Committee Member); Amanda McVety (Committee Member); Andrew Offenburger (Committee Member) Subjects: History; Middle Eastern History

Bachelor of Science of Journalism (BSJ), Ohio University, 2019, Journalism

This thesis tracks former al-Qa`ida affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra's media strategy between 2011 and 2016, applying Dr. Gadi Wolfsfeld's political contest model, and theorization of “news value” therein, to situate this strategy relative to the organization's material and sociopolitical health. More specifically, it attempts to identify “news value” crises arising from territorial losses, lapses in political control, and failures of image management, and account for Jabhat al-Nusra's variable interactions with media personnel in these periods. This project also complicates prevailing notions of a monolithic “post-classical” public relations by demonstrating that Jabhat al-Nusra's media strategy deviates from the allergy to dialogue associated with this tradition. In applying PCM and post-classicism simultaneously, it seeks to investigate the relationship between material power and media power while contesting notions of a homogeneous, mediated Salafi-jihadism, exemplified by the performative brutality of Islamic State. As a corollary, it intends to demonstrate the enduring analytic viability of the political contest model in the wake of new media, suggesting that the so-called media-militant symbiosis has survived Twitter and other disruptive platforms wielded by insurgent and/or terrorist organizations.

Committee: Ziad Abu-Rish (Advisor); Bernhard Debatin (Advisor) Subjects: Journalism; Mass Communications; Mass Media; Modern History

Bachelor of Arts (BA), Ohio University, 2019, Political Science

America's `War on Terror' has been a cornerstone of US foreign policy for nearly two decades now. Although what is commonly understood to be terrorism has been in existence long before the 9/11 attack, it is only after that event that there is a major shift in policy approaches to this phenomenon. This comes about for many reasons, but the most prominent catalyst for this change is how people understand and conceptualize the nature of these threats. The violent extremist organizations that have risen to the focus during the beginning of the century are those who claim to be motivated by Islamic beliefs, sparking a worldwide debate on the nature of not only these groups, but of Islam as well. The discussion on whether Islam was similar to other religions or stood in a category of its own circulated and remains as the foundation for how groups that claim that their operations and goals are inspired by Islam are understood. The idea that Islam is inherently different than other religions and because of this, is less likely to naturally arrive at the conditions for democracy within a state is called `Islamic exceptionalism.' The groups that are perceived through this lens are almost exclusively Salafi-Jihadi in nature and are said to seek to promote what they claim is the only true form of Islam. This focus on the religious dimension of violent extremism is a newer phenomenon. As the idea of Islamic exceptionalism spread, counterterrorism policy grew to adapt to the changing circumstances and evolved into what is known today as CVE policy. This shift was necessitated by the increase of the interest in Salafi-Jihadi violent extremist organizations and meant as a new response to what seemed like a new type of group. This intentional policy shift is a component of Salafi-Jihadi exceptionalism, the idea that these groups are inherently different than non-Salafi-Jihadi groups and therefore must be treated differently. But these groups are not different, they follow the sa (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Brandon Kendhammer Dr. (Advisor); Andrew Ross Dr. (Other) Subjects: Islamic Studies; Middle Eastern Studies; Peace Studies; Political Science

Bachelor of Arts, Marietta College, 2018, Leadership

The Syrian refugee crisis is a humanitarian failure of the modern day. As the rebellion continues to fight for a peaceful democracy, the Syrian government exerts more military force. Displacing over 11 million refugees both internally and externally, the crisis has quickly expanded beyond the influence of the state. As a result, refugees have flooded the international system. Neighboring states directly feel this pressure through the physical presence of refugees and have acquiesced to offer refuge at a mass level. The European itself has mandated an equally dispersion of refugees among member states. However, the United States, separated from both the physical and geographical pressure of refugees, has only offered refuge to approximately 50,000. This paper analyzes the current situation of the crisis through the application of three ethical lenses to determine how the United States should ethically respond. The three ethical lenses include Kantianism, Utilitarianism, and Rawlsian ethics. The applications suggested that from an ethical perspective, respect for humanity and human rights, a much more engaged response is not only necessary but ethically required of the United States.

Committee: Robert McManus Dr. (Advisor); Alexandra Perry Dr. (Committee Member); Beverly Hogue Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: International Relations; Political Science

Master of Music (MM), Bowling Green State University, 2017, Music Composition

Before dark, how distant the past is single-movement orchestral work lasting approximately six minutes. Inspired by “Leaving Aleppo” from poet Peter Balakian's Ozone Journal, this piece reflects on history's influence on current events and the importance of memory in times of strife. Cast in a through-composed form, Before dark is a programmatic work inspired by the imagery in “Leaving Aleppo” with further meditation on Black Dog of Fate, Dr. Balakian's memoirs about his discovery of the Armenian Genocide and his grandmother's survival of the death marches that ended in Aleppo, Syria. Modern-day Aleppo is plagued with civil war and has received significant international attention for the destruction and displacement of its population. Before dark, how distant the past contemplates these conflicts and the implications of their relationship in global history. The harmonic language of this piece is derived from the spectral analysis of a church bell found in Maaloula, Syria. The bell's most prominent overtones can be distilled into the hexachord, 6-45[25789B] along with the two quarter tones D quarter-flat and D quarter-sharp. These eight pitches comprise the entirety of the piece's first half. The composition's other sections employ the octachord 8-12[25789AB1]. This set contains both 6-45 (the “bell” hexachord) and its z-relation, 6-23 as subsets. Interleaved with the octachordal material is aggressive descending material derived from a tone row resulting from the combination of 6-45 and 6-23; this aggregate expands with the addition of three quarter tones, D quarter-flat, D quarter-sharp, and E quarter-flat, to form a fifteen-note chord that marks the piece's climax before a short denouement. Structurally, Before dark, how distant the past draws inspiration from the idea of descent; descending gestures feature prominently in the macro- and micro-scale. The macro-level features a large-scale registral descent; high register opening material stated in the glocke (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Elainie Lillios Dr. (Advisor); Mikel Kuehn Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Composition; Fine Arts; Music

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2016, Arts and Sciences: Classics

This thesis examines the archaeological evidence for the formation of identity within new colonial foundations in Seleucid Syria from the early third century to the first century B.C. Although this topic has been addressed relating to other Hellenistic Kingdoms, within the Seleucid Kingdom the dearth of undisturbed occupational levels has limited the scope of discussion. Owing to its remarkable levels of preservation and subsequent publication, this thesis uses the site of Jebel Khalid, located on the Euphrates River in modern Syria, as a case study to address this gap. Where available, I draw on other settlements to establish a broader perspective of how cultural preferences manifested themselves throughout the breadth of the Seleucid Kingdom. To examine how the Greco-Macedonian settlers constructed their identities in Jebel Khalid, I examine the available architectural and material evidence from the site. During the initial phase of occupation (Phase A, early third century B.C. to 150 B.C.) the settlement's nature as a Seleucid foundation heavily influenced the architectural choices in both the public and domestic spheres. Simultaneously, the presence of a new fortified town in the area made a declarative statement of Seleucid strength to the local people. In the second phase (Phase B, 150 B.C.- ca. 70/60 B.C.) local Syrian and Eastern trade networks gained prominence as invading Parthians drew Seleucid interest towards borders and away from sites such as Jebel Khalid. Local production of international pottery forms, based on Greco-Macedonian predecessors, demonstrate another way in which market demand was being met at Jebel Khalid. A hyper-local presence is seen in the cook wares and the appearance of Semitic names in local production. Finally, I examine the temple; this is the edifice that the excavators of Jebel Khalid believe shows the most evidence of cultural hybridization; a building employing elements from the architecture of both ethnic groups but unit (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Barbara Burrell Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Antonios Kotsonas Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Archaeology

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2015, Political Science (Arts and Sciences)

This thesis examines the process of sectarinization that challenged the perception of the Syrian national identity within the context of the Syrian-Uprising-Cum-Civil-War. I provide necessary background for understanding the importance of the political and economic dynamics rather than the dominant ethnic/sectarian narrative in instigating the massive protests in Syria. The purpose of this review is to contextualize the Syrian conflict within its socio-political and socio-economic conditions that gave momentum for the emergence of collective identities and the reconfiguration of cultural and religious identities in a society characterized by a weak national identity. I review major theories about causes of war in the Balkans to examine episodes of extreme violence between ethnic, national, or religious groups and to analyze what factors facilitated the emergence of new collective identities that challenged the weak Syrian national identity in the context of war. The visibility of sectarian identities, as a form of collective identity, and the politicization of cultural affiliations were conditioned by the transformation of political and social spheres. I review, discuss, and explain democratization theories and theories of nation and nationalism to bridge the gap between multiple interrelated factors: social movement, state's institutions, economic development, political entrepreneurs, political violence and processes of shaping collective identities. To understand what forces contributed to the transformation of power relations and the process of sectarian reconfiguration as well as the production of extreme violence in Syria following the "Arab Spring," I consider a hybrid approach. This hybrid approach combines critical constructivism, instrumentalism, and symbolic politics as a theoretical framework to analyze the role of social media and mainstream media in promoting sectarian groupness. Methodologically, this research is based on data and discourse analysis of (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Nukhet Sandal (Advisor); Judith Grant (Committee Member); Myra Waterbury (Committee Member) Subjects: Political Science

Master of Arts (MA), Ohio University, 2014, Communication and Development Studies (International Studies)

This thesis explores ways in which online activism regarding Syrian refugee women is translated to the offline sphere; what the experiences, issues and concerns of refugee women are; and whether this online activism reflects the real concerns of the refugee women. Methodologically, this paper is based on fieldwork in Jordan for six weeks during the summer of 2013. The fieldwork was conducted in three main regions: the Za'atri Refugee Camp, Amman City, and the outskirts of Amman. Data collection took place through thirty-three in-depth, semi-structured interviews, approximately 100 hours of participant observation, and discourse analysis of online spaces. Analysis of the findings indicates that: 1) social networking websites, such as Facebook, function as channels for promoting stereotypical and/or hegemonic representations of Syrian refugee women's issues; 2) offline activism of activist organizations in Jordan has in many cases a feminist component; however, online activism of these organizations is mainly for humanitarian purposes with no visibility of the diversity of refugee women's experiences; 3) because activists' usage of ICTs has advantages and disadvantages, ICTs are still resources that can be used both for and against social change activism, and thus offline activism remains the major indicator for actual success of any social change movement; 4) through the process of becoming refugees, Syrian women have heterogeneous experiences, which refute the dominant global and social media representations that minimized Syrian women's stories to not only passive victims of war but also subjects of forced marriage in exchange for money by their families.

Committee: Lawrence Wood (Advisor) Subjects: Communication; Gender Studies; Mass Communications; Middle Eastern Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2008, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

The intention of this paper is to demonstrate that the regulation of social subjects within the family was the impetus to regulation of legal subjects in both mandatory Syria and Lebanon (The Levant) and the French metropolis. First, this paper explores female subject construction under the post-WWI French mandate of the Levant. It then discusses how Enlightenment-thinking influenced the Ottoman Empire in its appropriation of the French Penal Code followed by the contemporary legal theory dividing Western and Islamic contexts. It then examines criminal court cases from the Levant and France that deal with domestic violence or murder as reactions to adultery with comparisons of how the French state in each context regulated citizens' morality. The paper concludes its genealogy of patriarchy in the law with Orientalist understandings of "honor killings" that neglect factoring in overlapping histories and current feminist approaches to confronting "Eastern" forms of violence.

Committee: Joseph Zeidan (Advisor); Snjezana Buzov (Committee Member) Subjects: Gender; History; International Law; International Relations; Law; Middle Eastern History; Social Structure; Womens Studies

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 1987, Political Science

This work was initially begun with the purpose of surveying Syria's civil upheaval of 1979-1982, the fundamentalist rebellion of the Muslim Brethren against the professedly progressive regime of 'Alawi president Hafez Assad, an episode which exploded in the aftermath of a decade of uncustomary stability in that turbulent country. It was to be a simple case study in comparative development, an example of the dialectic dichotomy between tradition and change using religion and sectarianism as the variables and focusing on the organizational level of rebels and incumbants. Four years and several changes of heart later, the study has taken on a different character. As the work progressed I grew wary of the notion of Islam as an integral part of tradition, a carry-over from a struggling past and an obstructive wall before the diffusion of modernization. The popularity of Islamic fundamentalism (political, redemptionist, or absolutistist Islam, however one might wish to identify it, as distinguished from moral guidelines and values) since the late sixties has posed critical questions concerning the process of modernization and concerning the sanctity of the theoretical models relating to it. On one hand it has indicated a "possible" reversal in the mechamics of development, if one accepts the premise that Islam – as tradition – is the anti- thesis of modernity. On the other hand, it has indicated a radical disenchantment on the part of a relevant social bloc, with the concepts, values, and processes involved in modernization. I have therefore decided to investigate the relevance of Islamic fundamentalism in terms of the country's socio- political culture. As it stands, this thesis argues that fundamental is a voluntary inovation and a cultural response to the process of socio-political development in Syria (and Middle East in general) over the past century, and not a mere carry over from bygone traditional era nor a parochial political phenomenon by fringe group in an othe (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Richard Herrmann (Advisor) Subjects: