MARCH, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Architecture (Master of)

Rendered obsolete through bankruptcy or expansion, the growing presence of empty big box stores across the country blights communities nationwide. However, while big box reuse is becoming more common, current trends in this area fail to constitute a model that can address the scale and complexity of the problem. This thesis investigates the practical and conceptual limitations of the current big box reuse model through an analysis of recent retail and non-retail reuse projects. Often, these projects are chiefly concerned with altering the image of the big box to shed the stigma of the former retailer. However, this practice can only produce simulations of reality, not true representations. The limitations of the current model inform methodological points that become the basis for a new reuse model, one that is capable of engaging a greater number of vacant lots and producing more programmatically diverse, environmentally conscious, and socially relevant projects.

Committee: Michael McInturf (Advisor) Subjects: Architecture

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2024, Media and Communication

The World Bank classifies the Lebanese economic crisis as one of the 10 worst such crises globally since the 19th century—and possibly one of the top three. Azma fawq ‘azma [crisis upon crisis] includes financial collapse, inability to care for 1.5 million refugees, the highest number of refugees per capita in the world, the devastation of the COVID-19 pandemic on an already fragile healthcare system, and the catastrophic explosion in Beirut, one of the worst non-nuclear explosions in human history, that killed 218 people, injured 7,000, and left 300,000 unhoused. Due to unprecedented levels of inflation, the Lebanese pound has lost 90% of its value, food prices have risen 500%, and 80% of the population lives in poverty. These crises have transformed Lebanon from a beacon of success to a failed state. Given the severe lack of organizational communication research in the Mashreq (Middle East), this dissertation is of particular importance as it fills a critical gap in research. The dissertation takes an interdisciplinary approach to examine how NGOs mobilize support, provide services, and engage in interorganizational collaboration to support citizens, residents, and asylum seekers struggling to survive in Lebanon. The triangulated methodological approach includes policy analysis, two phases of field research in Lebanon, and in-depth interviews with leaders, administrators, employees, and volunteers representing 52 NGOs. Interview respondents (n = 64) provided first-hand experiences, insights, and assessments of NGOs' efforts to combat intersecting crises, reflected on the complexity of these crises, and highlighted the need for economic and political reform to assuage the feelings of being trapped in the azma fawq ‘azma. Emergent themes include the importance of collective identity through interorganizational collaboration, the benefits of group cohesion in providing support and services, a sense of purpose that has expanded alongside the crises, a continuing (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lara Martin Lengel Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Lori Brusman Lovins Ph.D. (Committee Member); Terry Rentner Ph.D. (Committee Member); Ellen Gorsevski Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Area Planning and Development; Banking; Communication; Economics; Management; Middle Eastern Studies; Minority and Ethnic Groups; Near Eastern Studies; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Peace Studies; Political Science; Regional Studies; Rhetoric; Sustainability

Psy. D., Antioch University, 2021, Antioch New England: Clinical Psychology

Messages that women receive from the media, family, and peers are often intended to promote the female thin ideal, and these messages may contribute to the development of eating disorders. In Lebanese society, unrealistic standards for thinness are a central component of how Lebanese society defines glamour. The following paper examined the relationship of societal pressures on Lebanese women to meet these beauty expectations and how those pressures are related to disordered eating. Ninety Lebanese women between the ages of 18 and 39 responded to two questionnaires: (a) the Eating Attitudes Test-26 (EAT-26) and (b) the Sociocultural Attitudes Towards Appearance Questionnaire (SATAQ-4). A correlation analysis indicated that there was a positive relationship between problematic eating and exposure to social pressures of thin ideals and beauty conveyed by family, peers, and media. Given the limited research examining eating disorders in Lebanon and other parts of the Middle East, the results of this study can be useful to help facilitate awareness of social pressure and advocate for necessary treatment facilities and programs for women in Lebanon.

Committee: Kathi Borden PhD (Committee Chair); Gina Pasquale PsyD (Committee Member); Katherine Russell PsyD (Committee Member) Subjects: Clinical Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, Journalism (Communication)

This content analysis of attributed sources in the 1996, 2000, and 2006 news coverage of Israel's military actions in Lebanon shows a “Late Breaking Foreign Policy” effect Warren P. Strobel cites in his work, wherein media “Push” forward with reliance on government sources and allies in conflicts, but “Pull” back after setbacks. Israel dominated news sources in The New York Times and Washington Post, but there was significant increase in attributions to Lebanese sources due to rising civilian casualties in each conflict.

Committee: Robert Stewart (Committee Chair) Subjects: Communication; Journalism; Mass Communications; Middle Eastern History; Middle Eastern Studies

Master of Arts, Miami University, 0, Geography

Remittances are identified in the literature as having a positive impact on source regions. Yet, the literature on the developmental impacts of remittances on source regions focuses on the economic and social impacts with very limited attention paid to the geographical. The purpose of this thesis is to study the geographical impacts of remittances on source regions using Lebanese immigrants in Cleveland, Ohio. Thirty-two structured interviews were conducted in order to acquire demographic, remittance and migration history data. The main research question used is: What is the geography of remittances of Lebanese migrants from Cleveland to Lebanon? Three sub questions originate from it: What is the scale and frequency of remittances sent and who are these immigrants? Where and to whom in Lebanon are the remittances sent? What are they intended for in different places? The questions derive from three concepts: Remittances, development and migration.

Committee: Ian Yeboah (Advisor) Subjects: Economic Theory; Geography; International Relations

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 1964, Agricultural, Environmental and Developmental Economics

N/A

Committee: Ralph Sherman (Advisor) Subjects: Agricultural Economics

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2014, Womens Studies

This dissertation is an analysis of theoretical innovations emerging from the queer and feminist movements in Lebanon. I argue that the queer feminist thought that is being produced in Lebanon today is rooted in histories of women's participation in local immigrant, labor, and anti-colonial struggles. Whereas these movements are often seen as separate, I put forth a queer feminist anti-racist and transnational methodology that challenges the compartmentalization of social and political movements. I also argue that queer feminism in Lebanon is breaking away from linear concepts of time and is providing a cyclical temporality to show the interrelatedness of historical and current events. Finally, I examine the different ways that self-identified feminists reflect on the tensions and divisions within their communities. The process through which these local tensions are highlighted are critical of power structures within activist spaces, but they also aim at creating transnational connections with women of color in the U.S and with feminists of the Global South.

Committee: Guisela Latorre (Committee Chair); Cricket (Christine) Keating (Committee Member); Theresa Delgadillo (Committee Member); Nadine Naber (Committee Member) Subjects: Womens Studies

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, History

This dissertation examines the international history of the Palestinian armed struggle from late 1967 until the beginning of the Lebanese Civil war in 1975. Based on multi-archival and multilingual research in Lebanon, the United States, and the United Kingdom, I argue that the Palestinian guerillas won the struggle for international recognition by identifying themselves with the cultural forces of anti-colonialism and Third World internationalism. By laying claim to the status of a national liberation struggle, Palestinian fighters tapped into networks of global support emanating from places like Beijing, Hanoi, Algiers, and Havana that allowed them to achieve a measure of political legitimacy in the international community and provided for the continued survival of their movement. At the same time, these efforts to emulate revolutionary movements from other parts of the world helped to reshape Palestinian national identity into a profoundly cosmopolitan organism; a product of twentieth century globalization. However, these radical visions of national liberation ran headlong into U.S. designs for global order; if radical Palestinians could create a “second Vietnam” in the Middle East, the implications for U.S. authority in the Third World could be disastrous. Through support for regional police powers like Israel and Jordan, Washington was able to mount a sustained counterinsurgency campaign that prevented a guerilla victory.

Committee: Peter Hahn (Advisor); Robert McMahon (Committee Member); Stephen Dale (Committee Member); Kevin Boyle (Committee Member) Subjects: History; International Relations; Middle Eastern History

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, Miami University, 2012, History

In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan was faced with an increase in terrorism directed specifically at the United States. He feared that terrorism compromised America's reputation, especially in the midst of the Cold War. An examination of terrorism which specifically targeted the military reveals that Reagan's language and proposed policies emulated his Cold War fight. By 1985, the Reagan administration developed a Task Force for combating terrorism. Close investigation of the Task Force's publication reveals that although Reagan talked a hard-line against terrorists, he partook in little action against them.

Committee: Amanda McVety (Advisor); Sheldon Anderson (Committee Member); Matthew Gordon (Committee Member) Subjects: American History; History; Middle Eastern History

Master of Arts, Miami University, 2011, Comparative Religion

This paper explores how competing religio-political identities are articulated at the sub-national level and operationalized in the Lebanese public sphere. I consider the question of identity in the context of Lebanese consociationalism, as the absence of a coherent national identity has been interpreted as a primary obstacle to the adoption of a more integrative politics. In an effort to shed light on selected points of conflict between Lebanon's sects, I offer a focused comparison of Maronite and Shi'i identity programs in historical context before considering the implications of diversity for the nature and function of power-sharing arrangements as well as for the consolidation of the nation. Finally, I discuss the results of a preliminary research project conducted with a sample of Lebanese university students. I am interested here primarily in how a “liberal” university education may or may not impact students' articulations of religio-political identity and, ultimately, their political decision-making.

Committee: Lisa J.M. Poirier Ph.D (Committee Chair); Matthew S. Gordon Ph.D (Other); Jennifer A. Hart Ph.D (Other) Subjects: Middle Eastern Studies; Political Science; Religion

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2013, Near Eastern Languages and Cultures

The focus on both psychological disorder and total institutions in fiction written by Arab women during the Lebanese Civil War demonstrates the inherent relationship between the two in the modern nation-state. The particular case of Lebanon and its capital, Beirut, is distinct because of its history as an ethnically and religiously diverse colony. Vestiges of the discipline and order imposed by former colonizers remain in the form of institutions, although their influence is not total and all-encompassing. The Lebanese Civil War was in part a manifestation of the contradiction between Beirut as an integral part of a unifying national project and as a city composed of various ethnically and religiously motivated sects with differing political goals. Hoda Barakat, Ghada Samman, Hanan Shaykh, and Iman Yunus are four novelists who wrote through the war depicting its drama, senselessness, and brutality through its everydayness as well as the formerly imposed modern institutions, even as their authority is undermined and their domains of influence reconfigured. The discipline, order, and representation of both colonialism and institutions rely on psychological discipline and its internalization by the subject — by force and by threat of explicit violence in the colony and by the conditioning, regimentation, and surveillance inherent in modern institutions. When the organization of the modern city, as a system of institutions, is reconfigured and the legitimacy and authority of the institutions of which it is composed are contested, the result in the novels is the proliferation of psychological disorder. The choice to focus on novels written by women is strategically deliberate to combat the flattening of non-Western women into a monolithic group and as a humble attempt to live up to Mohanty's call for “careful, historically specific generalisations responsive to complex realities” (Mohanty 1988). My aim is not to represent or s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Youssef Yacoubi Professor (Advisor); Nada Moumtaz Professor (Committee Member); Joseph Zeidan Professor (Committee Member) Subjects: Middle Eastern Literature; Middle Eastern Studies