Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Twin Pillars to the Axis of Evil: Presidential Security Metaphors and the Justification of American Intervention in the Persian Gulf, 1971-2001(2021) Fowler, Randall; Parry-Giles, Shawn J; Communication; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)On January 16, 1968, British Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that his country would withdraw its forces from the Persian Gulf by 1971. U.S. policymakers interpreted this decision through the lens of the Cold War. They feared that the Gulf—a region whose oil was vital to American defense strategy—was at risk of becoming a “vacuum” and falling under the sway of the Soviet Union. Over the next three decades the United States would steadily assert its dominance in the Persian Gulf, as American policy toward the region evolved in tandem with the language used by presidential administrations to conceptualize and address the challenges they saw in the area. This study examines the security metaphors (and the ideas and images they conveyed)employed by U.S. presidents to sell their national security vision for the Persian Gulf to the American people. Four presidential metaphors—Twin Pillars, Strategic Consensus, the New World Order, and Dual Containment—functioned to reconstitute norms of sovereignty and American responsibility for the Gulf. Drawing on the symbolism of the Cold War, these metaphors were used by presidential administrations to progressively articulate a U.S. right of intervention in the region to combat forces perceived to be hostile to U.S. interests. The power of these metaphors derives from the way their logics and symbolism built on each other, collectively constructing interpretive frameworks through which officials, commentators, and reporters made sense of the region and its importance to the United States. This project is divided into four case studies to examine each metaphor, focusing on the presidencies of Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. In each chapter, I outline the development of the metaphor within the administration, analyze the public invocations of the metaphor in presidential discourse, trace expressions of the metaphor and its symbolism in press coverage and foreign policy commentary, and consider criticisms directed at each metaphor. In sketching the constitutive trajectory of each metaphor, I show how the collective picture the presidential administrations painted of the Gulf as a vulnerable and vital region worked to encourage military intervention. These rhetorical developments linked the Cold War to the War on Terror, ultimately setting the stage for George W. Bush’s “Axis of Evil” campaign and the U.S. invasion of Iraq.Item WATER REUSE FOR FOOD PRODUCTION IN THE WEST BANK AND ISRAEL: ASSESSING THE EFFICACY OF HOUSEHOLD GREYWATER TREATMENT SYSTEMS, AND CONSUMER PERCEPTIONS OF REUSE APPLICATIONS(2019) Craddock, Hillary Anne; Sapkota, Amy R; Maryland Institute for Applied Environmental Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Greywater is increasingly reused for agricultural irrigation in the Middle East. However, there is a dearth of data regarding antibiotics, herbicides, and antibiotic-resistant bacteria in household greywater reuse systems. Additionally, there are minimal data assessing consumer perceptions of water reuse practices. To address these gaps, my dissertation aims were to: 1) evaluate the presence of antibiotics and herbicides in greywater and treated effluent; 2) assess the prevalence of antibiotic-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in greywater and treated effluent; and 3) explore consumer perceptions of water reuse practices in Israel and the West Bank. For Aims 1 and 2, household greywater (n=23), treated effluent (n=23) and pond water (n=12) were collected from four farms in the West Bank from October 2017 to June 2018. The presence of antibiotics and herbicides was quantified using high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry, E. coli were enumerated via membrane filtration, and isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility using microbroth dilution. For Aim 3, surveys (n=236) were administered in Eilat, Israel and Bethlehem, West Bank. Statistical analysis included ANOVA, chi-squared, and Fisher’s exact tests. Multiple antibiotics and herbicides were detected in greywater influent. Removal during treatment was variable across compounds. The majority of influent (76.5%) and effluent (70.6%) samples had detectable levels of E. coli. Resistance was most commonly observed against ampicillin, trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole, tetracycline, and cefazolin. Regarding consumer perceptions, >50% of Israeli respondents were willing to serve raw and cooked produce irrigated with reused water. Palestinian respondents were more willing to engage in high-contact uses than Israeli respondents. The successful completion of this research has advanced knowledge regarding 1) the persistence of chemical and microbiological contaminants in treated household greywater that is used for food crop irrigation; and 2) consumer acceptance of water reuse practices. Farmers in the West Bank and around the world are combating decreasing quality and quantity of water and will increasingly rely on consumers willing to purchase produce irrigated with treated wastewater. Future work must ensure that farmers have access to safe and abundant irrigation water, and that consumers can be confident that they are purchasing safe food.Item The Demobilized Body: Transgressions of Personal Space and Political Participation(2016) Abdo, Carla Beth; Calvo, Dr. Ernesto F; Government and Politics; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Grounded in the intersection between gender politics and electoral studies, this dissertation examines the demobilizing effects of violations of personal space (in the form of domestic violence, control over mobility, emotional abuse, and sexual harassment) on the propensity to vote. Using quantitative methods across four survey datasets concerning Lebanon, the United States, Morocco, and Yemen, this research concludes that cross-regionally, familial control over mobility reduces the propensity to vote among women. Conversely, mechanisms of empowerment such as education and employment increase the propensity to vote.Item Race Across Borders: Race and Transnationalism in the First Syrian-American Community, 1890-1930(2013) Abrahim, Zeinab Emad; Zilfi, Madeline C; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This research explores the transnational nature of the citizenship campaign amongst the first Syrian Americans, by analyzing the communication between Syrians in the United States with Syrians in the Middle East, primarily Jurji Zaydan, a Middle-Eastern anthropologist and literary figure. The goal is to demonstrate that while Syrian Americans negotiated their racial identity in the United States in order to attain the right to naturalize, they did so within a transnational framework. Placing the Syrian citizenship struggle in a larger context brings to light many issues regarding national and racial identity in both the United States and the Middle East during the turn of the twentieth century.Item Dubai Detox: An Alternative Urbanism of Climate, Culture and Place(2010) James, Peter Michael; Bell, Matthew J; Architecture; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Dubai, the largest city in the United Arab Emirates, recently experienced a spectacular building boom. The new city--a string of setpieces including palm-shaped islands, manmade marinas and soaring skyscrapers--bears no resemblance to traditional Middle Eastern urban settlements. The end of the boom has left many building plans unrealized. These holes in the urban fabric present strategic opportunities to challenge Dubai's prevailing car-dependent, energy-intensive development model. This thesis proposes design possibilities for an undeveloped 100-hectare area adjacent to a Dubai Metro rail transit station. Using climate and culture as determinants in the design process, time-tested urban, landscape and architectural responses are applied and transformed to the creation of a new settlement pattern. The resulting urban design "kit of parts" provides a flexible framework for transit- and pedestrian-oriented development that accommodates varied densities and building types, simultaneously privileging public space and respecting cultural values of privacy and separation.