Browsing by Subject "Migration"
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Item Antun Saadeh in the mahjar, 1938-1947(2016-05) Leidy, Joseph Walker; Di-Capua, Yoav, 1970-; El-Ariss, TarekAntun Saadeh (1904-1949), the founder of the Syrian Social Nationalist Party, has often been labelled a political and ideological imitator of European fascism. This association has led many to gloss over an important feature of his career: the mahjar, or Arab diaspora, particularly in Argentina and Brazil where he spent much of his life. This thesis contends that Saadeh's illiberalism emerged not as a mere echo of European fascism but from a diverse set of ideas and experiences. Central among these was his experiences and perceptions of the mahjar, which became a symbolic foil for Saadeh’s Syrian Social Nationalism. On the one hand, Saadeh conceived of the mahjar in terms that paralleled the historicist ideal of Phoenician trading colonies in Lebanese nationalism. However, Saadeh also had reservations about the dedication of migrant communities to the national cause. Reflecting this ambiguity, Arabic-language periodicals published in Argentina show how Saadeh was received in 1940s migrant society, where he found both supporters and detractors. There, Saadeh’s initially positive reception was followed by a turn against him in public debates. Nonetheless, Saadeh and his party had some success in establishing their movement in the mahjar, where younger supporters connected Saadeh to local discourses of national liberation. Viewing Saadeh from the perspective of his transnational influences and migrant audiences allows us to see him not as an exception in midcentury Levantine politics but within the wider context of nationalist politics in Lebanon, Syria, and the mahjar at the end of the Mandate era.Item Armenian Iranian identities in the institutional home visit : a case study(2014-12) Cameron, Adam Dean; Atwood, Blake Robert, 1983-In recent years, many ethnic Armenians from Iran have come to the US as refugees, resettling in a diverse landscape that already includes large Armenian and Iranian diaspora communities. Soon after arrival, they also interface with US institutions in a home visit from a refugee resettlement case worker. In this thesis I adopt constructivist understandings of identity-in-interaction to examine the identity work that older Armenian Iranian immigrants do during these visits, reproduced here as life history interviews. I argue that Armenian Iranians use the home visit to discursively construct an Armenian Iranian identity that addresses the tension between institutional and community pressure to represent themselves as uniquely discriminated against in Iranian society while still identifying with an Iranian national identity. The more localized and temporary identities and interactional roles that speakers – including the researcher – adopt in the interviews also contribute to gender asymmetries in the interactions to the effect that men most often command the floor. Therefore, while the home visit format provides insight into the ways Armenian Iranians articulate an identity that is at least in part “Iranian” amidst normative pressures to do otherwise, it can also translate into an interaction that privileges men’s perspectives and allows them to largely determine its direction and content.Item The biopolitics of belonging : Europe in post-Cold War Arabic literature of migration(2013-08) Sellman, Johanna Barbro; El-Ariss, TarekSince the 1990s, a corpus of Arabic literary narratives has appeared that stage Europe from the perspective of forced migrants. This literature on refugees, asylum seekers, and clandestine migrants articulates central problems of migration to Europe in a period of migration policy reform in response to globalization. In this dissertation, I analyze a selection of Arabic and francophone North African literary narratives, including Mahmoud al-Bayaty's 2006 "Dancing on Water", Iqbal Qazwini's 2006 "Zubaida’s Window", Farouq Yousef's 2007 "Nothing and Nobody", Hamid Skif's 2006 "The Geography of Danger", Youssef Fadel's 2000 "Hashish", and Mahi Binebine's 1999 "Welcome to Paradise". This study is situated at the intersection of forced migration studies and Arabic literary studies. As the effort to standardize European migration policy and manage migration has increased states' power to filter and exclude, the human rights framework of migration policy has weakened (Fekete 2009; Menz 2008). Such shifts represent an intensification of what Michel Foucault calls "biopolitics," modern states' propensity to manage populations by producing belonging and exclusion (Foucault 2003). Literature of migration has become an important vehicle for reflecting on the ways that migration policies produce belonging and exclusion in contemporary Europe. Literature of forced migration requires modes of analysis that differ from the more modernist notions of exile that have dominated literary studies (Malkki 1995; McLeod 2000; Parvati 2010). In this study, I draw attention to the ways that literary narratives of migration re-figure Europe as a wilderness. The works that I analyze explore precarious migrant subjectivities through forests, urban jungles, and cannibalism, spaces onto which fantasies (and often nightmares) of the outside of political community can be projected Furthermore, I argue that wilderness provides sites of negotiation between the biopolitical and ideals of rights-based citizenship. While the biopolitical does not serve as a foundation of belonging in these narratives as suggested by some theorists (Agamben 2008), the literature posits new modes of belonging through the very exclusions produced by forced migration.Item Contingency on the Korean peninsula : collapse to unification(2010-05) O, Tara C.; Galbraith, James K.A collapsed North Korea would pose a momentous test to the future of the region. The five regional powers—South Korea, China, Japan, Russia, and the United States—are ill-prepared for such an event, partly because of the act of planning for it would upset North Korea. However, the potential challenges of a collapse are too great to ignore. This study presents an historical and political analysis of the increasing risk that North Korea may collapse. A comparison with earlier cases suggests that triggers and indicators of collapse can be identified, including increasing cross-border information flows, defections, and the possible death or incapacitation of North Korea’s leader. Further, the large and growing economic disparity between North Korea and its neighbors, South Korea and China, points to likely consequences of collapse, including possible mass migration. The study then examines the roles of South Korea, China, the U.S., Japan, and Russia in the future of the Korean peninsula; it concludes with a further consideration of the paradox of collapse planning, but argues that it would be better to run the risks entailed in the exercise than to be caught flatfooted when a collapse occurs. The analysis is based on interviews, surveys, and documents in English and Korean.Item Debating legality in Fremont, Nebraska : migrant political participation and the growing trend of local immigration enforcement(2012-05) Martinez, Vanessa Hope; Rodriguez, Nestor; Sletto, BjørnThis research uses Fremont, Nebraska, and City Ordinance 5165, passed in June of 2010, as a case study to explore the effects on migrant political activity of local legislation that prevents undocumented migrants from renting homes and acquiring jobs, and also investigates the nature of migrant participation in opposing such measures. Fremont is one of many U.S. cities that have passed ordinances targeting undocumented migrants, and while continuous legal battles have delayed these laws from going into effect, they reflect a growing attempt to undertake immigration enforcement at a local level. Interviews with Fremont community members suggest the effects of the passage of Ordinance 5165 and surrounding debate are primarily negative, including community division, increased racism, and a challenged sense of safety and belonging for many residents. However, the legislation has also had some positive influence, such as motivating higher levels of civic engagement among migrants and Latinos, and spurring mobilization efforts that have served as points of solidarity and empowerment for these same groups. Furthermore, because places are formed by way of their relations to other places, fieldwork was also conducted in Chichihualco, Guerrero, Mexico one of the largest sending communities to Fremont. These complementary findings exposed how global realities, such as economic need and transnational social ties, shaped happenings in Fremont; and interviews with return migrants and migrants' family members in Chichihualco suggest that it is unlikely the law will deter migration to the city nor persuade migrants to relocate or return to their countries of origin. The Fremont case study provides insight concerning the nationwide trend of local immigration enforcement, highlighting the need for continued investigation of the ways in which community members are organizing against such policy measures, and the observed and potential effects for various actors at different scales. This sort of legislation is being passed with greater frequency in the U.S., and this research argues that its effects have been overwhelmingly negative, and that such laws represent a missed opportunity to instead integrate growing migrant populations into city planning and development processes that could be beneficial for entire communities.Item Determinants of fertility across context : a comparison of Mexican and Turkish immigrant women(2011-05) White, Kari Lyn; Potter, Joseph E.; Buckley, Cynthia J.; Raley, R Kelly; Hummer, Robert A.; Stolp, ChandlerImmigrant women are frequently found to have higher fertility relative to women in the majority population. This is often attributed to their socioeconomic characteristics, cultural preferences and patterns of childbearing, and adaptation to the destination context. However, several limitations in the research to date may mask the associations and processes which shape women’s fertility: 1) frequently used indicators are not sensitive to the way in which fertility is shaped by the migration process 2) key proximate determinants of fertility are often not integrated into analyses and 3) non‐migrant women in sending countries are often excluded as a reference for immigrant women’s childbearing behavior. In order to assess how women’s migratory moves and social context affect fertility, I compare the risk of first birth and patterns of contraceptive use at higher‐order parities for non‐migrant, immigrant and native‐born women. For these analyses, I use data from nationally‐representative surveys of reproductive health and family formation from Mexico, the United States, Turkey and Germany. The results from these analyses demonstrate that both foreign‐born Mexican‐ and Turkish‐origin immigrant women experience first birth earlier than non-migrants, second generation immigrants, and native-born women at destination. However the underlying determinants of earlier birth are different for these two groups. There are also differences for second generation women; US-born Mexicans experience first birth at significantly younger ages than whites, whereas age at first birth is very similar for German-born Turkish women and ethnic Germans. Furthermore, patterns of contraceptive use among immigrant women who have at least one child are notably different than patterns observed for non-migrants. US-born women have similar contraceptive use compared to whites, but Mexican-born women are less likely to use permanent and highly effective methods, even after controlling for fertility intentions. Turkish-origin women in Germany exhibit large differences in contraceptive use relative to non-migrant women, particularly the very low reported use of withdrawal. These findings indicate that fertility determinants vary across origin and destination context. The observed differences between Mexican- and Turkish-origin women suggest that distinct processes of migration, socialization, and access to contraception lead to variation in the fertility outcomes for these two groups.Item Developing alternative markets in Veracruz : the case of totomoxtle(2012-08) Rizzo Lara, Rosario De La Luz 1985-; Torres, Rebecca MariaA series of economic and political changes that occurred in the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s have had major impacts on the small-scale agricultural sector in Mexico. The debt crisis of the 1980s led the government to adopt the neoliberal model. Reforms brought by the adoption of this model including trade liberalization, privatization of state-owned enterprises, reduction and cancellation of credits and social programs, along with the relative abandonment of the agricultural sector and focus on the manufacturing and services industries have caused economic, social and environmental harm to corn producers in the Totonacapan region of the state of Veracruz. In order to respond to the impacts of these large-scale policies, farmers coped by migrating to cities and U.S., and by taking advantage of the emergence of alternative markets, such as the corn husk, or totomoxtle, industry. The objective of this study is to explain the context in which totomoxtle emerged and evolved, and determine the importance and impact that this market has had on corn producers, intermediaries and exporters, men, women and children. Based on qualitative data gathered during 2011 using semi-structured interviews, participant observation, and the examination of secondary sources, I found that the totomoxtle trade has expanded considerably in the last decade becoming the main source of income and employment for many marginal households in the Totonacapan. The study questions, however, its ability to be used as a tool for poverty alleviation. Findings suggest that intermediaries and exporters obtain larger profits than farmers thus elucidating the need for more access to capital and infrastructure to achieve higher benefits for growers. At the same time, research also found evidence of the different participation of women and men during the production and manufacturing of totomoxtle. Moreover, research show that women were paid less, work for more hours and they labor in small and crowed places. Finally, data also suggests that the growth of totomoxtle production can be attributed to the increased demand and consumption by Mexican/Latino immigrant populations in the U.S., a shift in the American palate, and its overall availability in new immigrant destinations.Item The dialectic of blackness and full citizenship : a case study of Haitian migration to the Dominican Republic(2016-05) Romain, Jheison Vladimir; Smith, Christen A., 1977-; Arroyo, JossiannaIn 2015 the Dominican Republic enforced a series of measures to expel undocumented Haitian immigrants and unregistered Dominicans of Haitian descent. As a result, thousands of people of Haitian descent became "illegal", deportable subjects forced to either return to Haiti or live in hiding in the Dominican Republic. This thesis presents a theoretical and ethnographic reflection on this most recent citizenship crisis between Haiti and the Dominican Republic. Migration carried out despite legal restrictions can be considered a modern form of resistance against racialized and historically defined social structures that disproportionately affect impoverished black people of Haitian descent. How have restrictions on migration and immigration gradually crystallized the lives of black people as less valuable than those of whites and others who fit-in with white, Eurocentric values? During a time in which international migration has gained a great deal of worldwide prominence, the question of citizenship and belonging for people of Haitian descent living in the Dominican Republic is a window that provides insights into the politics of illegality that have been mobilized to justify the abuse and even the killing of people who have violated established rules of border crossing. Grounded in ethnographic research carried out in the Dominican Republic and Haiti from May to July of 2015, this thesis draws on the work of Sylvia Wynter (2007), Charles W. Mills (1999), and John Rawls (1971) to contemplate the ways in which the social and economic exclusion of black people of Haitian descent has been historically promoted and justified. Further, engaging the theories of Aviva Chomsky (2004), Abdias do Nascimento (1980) and Neil Roberts (2015), the thesis argues that undocumented migration is 21st century marronage – a mode of resistance, through flight, against oppressive socio-economic structures.Item Directing neuronal behavior via polypyrrole-based conductive biomaterials(2011-05) Forciniti, Leandro; Zaman, Muhammad H. (Muhammad Hamid); Schmidt, Christine E.; Sanchez, Isaac C.; Maynard, Jennifer A.; Bonnecaze, Roger T.The objective of my thesis is to explore the use of the conducting polymer, polypyrrole, in neural applications. In addition a supplementary aspect of dissertation will involves understanding the effects of external stimuli on nervous system cells, with the ultimate goal of designing therapeutic systems for nerve regeneration. In normal development and peripheral nervous system repair, nerves encounter naturally occurring chemical, physical, and electrical stimuli. Polypyrrole (PPy) has attracted much attention for use in numerous biomedical applications as it presents chemical, physical and electrical stimuli. In addition, PPy is particularly exciting because the extent by which chemical, physical, and electrical cues are presented to the injured nerve can be easily tailored. Thus, conducting polymers are excellent scaffolds for the exploration of how the cellular components of the nervous system (i.e., Schwann cells and neurons) interact with chemical, topographical, and electrical stimuli. This dissertation covers three main objectives and is supplemented by two additional topics. The two additional topics explore the effect stimuli present on the conducting polymer PPy have on neural interfaces. These fundamental studies use computational modeling to gain a better understanding of cellular motility on substrates containing different stimuli. Both topics are covered in the appendices of this dissertation. With regards to the three main objectives, I first characterized and optimized the electrochemical synthesis of the conducting polymer, PPy, for Schwann cell biocompatibility. Next, I investigated the effect the application of electrical cues through PPy has on Schwann cell migration. In addition to investigating the effect of the direct electrical current on Schwann cells I also considered the effect that electrical stimulation provided by PPy has on protein adsorption. Finally, I developed a hybrid PPy material that will provide advantageous properties for neural interfaces. Specifically, I describe the development of a polypyrrole:poly-(lactic-co-glycolic) acid blend for neural applications. In summary the three specific objectives covered in my thesis are: Specific Aim 1: Characterize and optimize the electrochemical synthesis of the conducting polymer, polypyrrole, for Schwann cell biocompatibility Specific Aim 2: Determine the effect of electrical stimulation on Schwann cell migration Specific Aim 3: Develop polypyrrole:poly-(lactic-co-glyolic) acid blends for neural engineering applications.Item Education gradients in health for Asian immigrant adults in the United States(2015-05) Wang, Ying-Ting; Hummer, Robert A.; Cubbin, Catherine; Hayward, Mark D; Powers, Daniel A; Yu, Wei-hsinThis dissertation examined the association between education and health among Asian immigrants in the United States. Despite being the second-largest immigrant population and the largest new immigrant group in the United States since 2009, Asian immigrants in the United States have received limited, although growing, attention in the literature on immigrants' health. Asian immigrants have a weaker education gradient in health in comparison to non-Hispanic whites, and this weak gradient raises questions on the role of education for Asian immigrants and, more broadly, on Asian immigrants' health. In this dissertation, I first documented the relationship between education and adult health for Asian immigrants and examined whether the education gradient in health for Asian immigrants' is weaker than that for U.S.-born whites. Second, I studied the underlying reasons for the modest education gradient in health for Asian immigrants. Using the National Health Interview Survey, the New Immigrant Survey, and the China Health and Nutrition Survey, I found that Asian immigrants do have a weaker education gradient in health than U.S.-born whites. This weaker gradient is mostly due to the fact that Asian immigrants with high education have worse health than their U.S.- born white counterparts, while Asian immigrants with low education are healthier than their U.S.-born white counterparts. Lower economic returns to education and a positive association between education and health behaviors can account for some health disadvantages for highly educated Asian immigrants. Also, some of the health advantage of less-educated Asian immigrants may be attributed to positive health selection among Asian immigrants. This dissertation provides a much-needed understanding of Asian immigrants' health and has implications for immigration policies and public health programs.Item El derecho a no migrar : Mexico’s colonialism and the forced displacement of the Ñuu Savi(2016-08) Lopez, Noe; Menchaca, Martha; Gonzales, AlfonsoThe emergent field of Mexican indigenous migration studies has focused on remittances, hometown associations, cultural reproduction, and identity formation in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. In my project, I contribute to the work of indigenous migration studies by analyzing and contesting the Mexican Nation’s State hegemony. Mexico’s political and economic structures have systematically caused the forced displacement of Ñuu Savi (Mixtec) people from their land in Oaxaca, Mexico. Through a historical analysis, I explore the Porfirian period (1876-1910), as it instigated land dispossession, initiated government projects against indigenous communities, and forced indigenous people to become laborers for hacienda plantations. Then, I examine the agrarian reform government initiatives of 1915 and their implementation during the Lázaro Cárdenas Administration (1934-1940). Drawing from literature reviews and policy analysis, I contend that indigenous people from Mexico now living in the United States were forced to out-migrate because of Mexico’s colonial, racial, and ethnic policies towards indigenous people, policies that negated their right not to migrate.Item Embodied Storying, A Methodology for Chican@ Rhetorics: (Re)making Stories, (Un)mapping the Lines, And Re-membering Bodies(2012-10-19) Cobos, CasieThis dissertation privileges Chican@ rhetorics in order to challenge a single History of Rhetoric, as well as to challenge Chican@s to formulate our rhetorical practices through our own epistemologies. Chapter One works in three ways: (1) it points to how a single History of Rhetoric is implemented, (2) it begins to answer Victor Villanueva's call to "Break precedent!" from a singly History, and (3) it lays groundwork for the three-prong heuristic of "embodied storying," which acts as a lens for Chican@ rhetorics. Chapter Two uses embodied storying to look at how Chican@s are produced through History and how Chican@s produce histories. By analyzing how Spanish colonizers, contemporary scholars/publishers, and Chican@s often disembody indigenous codices, this chapter calls for rethinking how we practice codices. In order to do so, this chapter retells various stories about Malinche to show how Chican@s already privilege bodies in Chican@ stories in and beyond codices. Chapter Three looks at cartographic practices in the construction, un-construction, and deconstruction of bodies, places, and spaces in the Americas. Because indigenous peoples practice mapping by privileging bodies who inhabit/practice spaces, this chapter shows how colonial maps rely on place-based conceptions of land in order to create imperial borders and rely on space-based conceptions in order to ignore and remove indigenous peoples from their lands. Chapter Four looks at foodways as a practice of rhetoric, identity, community, and space. Using personal, familial, and community knowledge to discuss Mexican American food practices, this chapter argues that foodways are rhetorical in that they affect and are affected by Chican@ identities. In this way, food practices can challenge the conception of rhetoric as being solely attached to text and privilege the body. Finally, Chapter Five looks at how Chican@ rhetorics and embodied storying can affect the field(s) of rhetoric and writing. I ask three specific questions: (1) How can we use embodied storying in histories of rhetoric? (2) How can we use embodied storying in Chican@ rhetorics? (3) How can we use embodied storying in our pedagogy?Item Empire’s angst : the politics of race, migration, and sex work in Panama, 1903-1945(2013-08) Parker, Jeffrey Wayne; Guridy, Frank Andre; Levine, Philippa; Makalani, Minkah; Mckiernan-González, John; Twinam, AnnThis dissertation explores the negotiations and conflicts over race, sex, and disease that shaped the changing contours of the nightlife in Panama from 1903 to 1945. It investigates why sexual commerce on the isthmus evoked an array of masculine anxieties from various historical actors, including U.S. officials, Panamanian authorities, and Afro-Caribbean activists. I argue that the conflicting cultural encounters over sex work remained at the heart of U.S. imperial designs, Panamanian nationalism and state-building efforts, and Afro-Caribbean visions of racial advancement during the first half of the twentieth century. Moreover, these global visions of manliness generated at the local level also took shape in dialogue with each other. This interconnected discourse on manliness highlights the intertwined histories of the United States, Latin America, and the Caribbean in the early twentieth century. Migrant women at the center of the drama, however, became particularly adept at navigating the multiple structures of patriarchal control. They manipulated the legal system, resisted abuses of power, participated in labor organizations, pursued economic opportunities, pressed moral claims, demanded respect, and highlighted injustices. Women embroiled in controversy selected from an array of ideas circulating the region. They also played off competing understandings of manhood in order to achieve their own ends. Often these various strategies of negotiation had contradictory outcomes. Active engagement with patriarchal institutions could simultaneously reinforce gender and racial norms while challenging the material reality of daily life. Nevertheless, the failure by the U.S. and Panamanian governments to curtail sexual deviancy and venereal disease underscored the limits of imperial power at a key global crossroads in the Americas.Item Forced into exile : conflicts of space, gender and identity among young Salvadoran deportees(2015-05) Gutierrez, Miguel Jr.; Rodriguez, Néstor; Roberts, Bryan R., 1939-The focus of this thesis is on male, Salvadoran deportees, aged 20-35, who after spending their formative years in the United States, are faced with the task of reintegrating into Salvadoran society. Overall, Salvadoran males account for 90% of detainees and deportees to El Salvador (UCA, 2015). Through this sample, I explore the experience of young deportees in the growing call-center sector, and explore the consequences of gendered, transnational narratives, and the impact of deportations on their identity. The backdrop for this study is El Salvador's growing call-center industry, as this is the site where I interviewed participants, and one that was continuously framed as a site of criminality by local Salvadorans. The way young deportees maintain bonds with their former communities in the United States, perform their identities, and self-identify can greatly influence the manner in which they interact with Salvadorans in their new society. Consequently, these former aspects can greatly affect how deportees reconstruct their lives in a foreign context.Item Habitat use and trophic structure of Atlantic tarpon (Megalops atlanticus) inferred from geochemical proxies in scales(2016-05) Seeley, Matthew Edward; Black, Bryan A.; Walther, Benjamin D.; Fuiman, Lee AAtlantic tarpon, Megalops atlanticus, are highly migratory euryhaline predators that occupy different habitats throughout life. Atlantic tarpon are known to inhabit oligohaline waters, although the frequency and duration of movements across estuarine gradients into these waters are poorly known. This species supports over a two billion dollar industry within the Gulf of Mexico and is currently listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). Analysis of trace element and stable isotope compositions of growth increments in fish scales is a non-lethal method for reconstructing migrations across estuaries in vulnerable species. We analyzed Atlantic tarpon scales from the Texas coast to validate this method using inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for trace elements and isotope ratio mass spectrometry (IR-MS) for stable isotope ratios. Multiple scales and otoliths were taken from the same individual to confirm the consistency of elemental and isotopic uptake within the same individual and between structures. Results show that scale Sr/Ca and δ13C are effective proxies for salinity, while increases in δ15N are consistent with known trophic shifts throughout life history. Patterns of elemental concentrations and isotope values across scales within an individual were consistent with each other. Scale and otolith transects contained the same overarching trend with comparable shifts in elemental concentrations across growth increments in the two structures. Migratory contingents, or groups within distinct populations that exhibit different patterns of habitat use and movement across salinity gradients, were identified. The distribution of contingents indicated that migratory behavior is highly variable, with some, but not all fish transiting estuarine gradients into oligohaline waters. Yet, the majority of individuals sampled exhibited early life residency in oligohaline waters. This work demonstrates the use of low salinity habitats by Atlantic tarpon. Our validation of the methods for analyzing scales will provide novel opportunities to monitor fish migrations across salinity gradients.Item Harboring narratives : notes towards a literature of the Mediterranean(2015-08) Lovato, Martino; Tissières, Hélène; Ali, Samer; Bonifazio, Paola; El-Ariss, Tarek; Harlow, Barbara; Bouchard, NormaThrough the reading of several novels and movies produced in Arabic, French, and Italian between the 1980s and the 2000s, in this dissertation I provide a literary and transmedia contribution to the field of Mediterranean studies. Responding to the challenge brought by the regional category of Mediterranean to singular national and linguistic understandings of literature and cinema, I employ a comparative and multidisciplinary methodology to read novels by Baha’ Taher, Abdelwahab Meddeb, Abdelmalek Smari, and movies by film directors Merzak Allouache, Abdellatif Kechiche, and Vittorio De Seta. I define these works as “harboring narratives,” as they engage with the two shores of the Mediterranean in a complex process of interiorization and negotiation, opening routes of meaning across languages, societies and cultures. As they challenge constructions of otherness that materialize in present-day conflicts in the region, the works of these novelists and filmmakers give voice to a perspective on the Mediterranean radically different from that upheld by the “paradigms of discord.” Whereas according to these paradigms there is nothing in the Mediterranean but an iron curtain, these works present migration and conflict, historiography and religion, intimacy and translation as experiences shared across countries and societies in the region. By following routes of meaning that draw together the linguistic, the geographical, the economic, the historical, and the religious, I study how these novelists and filmmakers establish relationships between “horizons of belonging” and “elsewhere,” selfhood and otherness. In so doing, I respond to Kinoshita and Mallette’s call for challenging the “monolingualism” inherent in our contemporary ways of reading linguistic and literary traditions. As I show how the routes of meaning opened by these novelists and filmmakers across the region lead to hope that one day we will rejoice in sharing a common Mediterranean shore, however, I caution against easy enthusiasms. These novelists and filmmakers urge us to respond to the challenge of the present-day conflicts they address in their works, and a shared Mediterranean shore will eventually appear on the horizon only after we overcome monolingual conceptions of selfhood and otherness, setting sail towards a shore we have never seen.Item Human rights strategies in the context of changing political opportunity structures : the case of two transnational networks in El Salvador(2012-05) Ramirez, Allison Marie; Dietz, Henry A.; Dulitzky, Ariel E.; Weaver, CatherineThis report explores the evolution of advocacy strategies amongst human rights organizations in El Salvador over the past two decades, focusing in particular on domestic activists’ perceived need to use transnational venues for activism in order to achieve positive domestic results. The Salvadoran political transition in 2009 is used to examine how changing political opportunity structures at the domestic level affect human rights organizations’ transnational strategies. Extensive in-country fieldwork in 2011 involved eighteen in-depth interviews with activists, academics, and government officials, four months of participant observation with one of the human rights organizations of interest, and primary document content analysis. The results of this research allow for two human rights networks to be considered: the historical human rights movement seeking justice and reparations for human rights violations committed during the Salvadoran civil war, and the contemporary migrants’ rights movement seeking both protection and reparations for Salvadoran migrants and their families. The findings suggest that despite significant openness at the domestic level, activists perceive transnational strategies as an important complement to domestic strategies that allow them to achieve positive concrete change and protect against future reversals in policy.Item Hurricane Katrina’s Impact on the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area(Texas Tech University, 2009-08) Schiller, Anita R.; McComb, Robert P.; Mehta, Kishor C.; Mulligan, KevinHurricane Katrina forced the evacuation of an estimated 130,000 persons to Houston, TX, causing its population to increase by 3% virtually overnight. Most of these evacuees were younger and less-educated than existing residents and remained in the Houston area for at least a year. The first objective of this dissertation is to estimate the effect of this massive in-migration on workers’ earnings in non-tradable goods industries in the Houston Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA). Using establishment-level data from the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages (QCEW) and gross sales and use tax receipts from the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the study compares relative earnings per worker within the non-traded goods industries in the Houston and Dallas-Fort Worth MSAs before and after the Katrina-induced in-migration. Unlike previous studies, this study controls for the influence of an increase in the demand for local goods and services on the demand for labor in normally non-tradable goods and services activities. The study finds evidence that the average payroll per employee in the low-skill non-tradable industries decreased by 3.0% in the Houston MSA relative to the Dallas-Fort Worth MSA as a result of the Katrina-induced shift in labor supply. The study finds no evidence of any effect in the set of high-skill non-tradable industries. The findings also suggest that the failure to control for demand-side influences confounds this effect and severely underestimates the supply-side effect on wages. The second objective of this dissertation is to estimate the possible damage that a natural disaster of the magnitude of Hurricane Katrina could cause in the Houston MSA. Using Census-Track and QCEW data, this study estimates the expected damage, payroll loss, and expected number of affected employees that could be sustained by the Houston MSA. The storm surge analysis is conducted using GIS and the hurricane-related damage is estimated using HAZUS-MH. The study points out the advantages of using GIS to analyze the expected storm surge damage estimation. The advantage of using the HAZUS-MH is that it provides results for a county-wise breakdown in terms of affected essential facilities and debris by tonnage. Also, it provides expected building damage by occupancy type and building type.Item Josef Fares’ Zozo as accented cinema(2016-05) Alexander, Elizabeth Lindsay; Wilkinson, Lynn Rosellen; Ramirez Berg, CharlesIn 2005, the Lebanese-Swedish filmmaker Josef Fares, who had attained recognition in Sweden through the immigrant comedies Jalla! Jalla! (2000) and Kopps (2003), presented his third feature film and first drama, Zozo, inspired by Fares’s own migration to Sweden. Set in 1987 Beirut, Zozo portrays a ten-year boy who loses his parents during the Lebanese Civil War and who journeys to reunite with his grandparents already settled in Sweden. In Sweden, Zozo is forced to learn the host country’s language quickly and to understand the unwritten rules of his new culture. Like his grandparents, he will probably always have an accent and be recognizably the “other.” The film became Sweden’s national submission to the 78th Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film and its nomination not only raised questions on what Sweden and Swedishness mean in a contemporary global world, but it also reexamined the problems of nationality, location, identity, and historical memory in a borderless Europe. In this essay I argue that Zozo is an illustration of accented film, which means the film is neither Swedish nor Lebanese, but a combination of both. Influenced by his deterritorialization from Lebanon and his current life in Sweden, the cinematographic stylistic choices of Josef Fares exhibit a “double consciousness” - multiple cultural identities at once. To further understand the Lebanese and Swedish elements in the film, I analyze how elements such as chronotopes (time-space), border crossing, epistolarity, and double consciousness are inscribed in the film. In addition, I use Laura U. Marks’ concept of fossils, radioactive recollection-objects. By employing Hamid Naficy’s accented cinema theory, I hope to explain how Josef Fares is neither Swedish nor Lebanese, but an individual with multicultural identities, which reflect in the elements of the narrative and cinematographic style.