While recruitment of middle and upper-class Bangladeshis by Islamic jihadist terror groups and Iranian mobilization of Afghan Hazaras to fight in the Syrian civil war present two extremely different regional challenges, this study shows how these movements are linked in the ways in which state and non-state actors deploy similar narrative strategies to mobilize support. I argue that narratives that capitalize upon the failure of upward social mobility and governance failures are highly useful for recruiting individuals to join either state or non-state organizations when appropriately and specifically linked to the particular historical, cultural, and political environment. I will demonstrate this by comparing and contrasting the use of recruitment narratives playing off of grievances for Iran's IRGC recruitment of poor Afghan Hazaras with low-levels of formal educational achievement and Islamist terrorist groups’ recruitment of middle- and upper-class Bangladeshis. The study argues that while the contexts and life experiences between IRGC Hazara and Bangladeshi terror group recruits are quite distinct, they are similarly motivated by narratives that emphasize the creation of a strong ideological and religious community based on alienation defined by a lack of desired and expected upward social mobility and profound failures of basic governance.

I will demonstrate through analysis that the effectiveness of music in social movements relies in large part on two unique elements: authenticity and collective action. I will then argue that these elements are antithetic to the actual conditions of music production as the 21st century progresses in America. While this paper does not explore the possible effectiveness of movements without music, I emphasize the well documented ((Futrell, et. al. (2006), (Roy, 2010), (Dyck, 2017)) link between music and social movements, and conclude that this relationship between music and social movements is in danger.

Buildings and monuments serve as a communal declaration of identity and as the physical landscape upon which memories are inscribed. Through its ability to concrete identity and capacity to reconstruct the narratives of the past, public spaces and places have the structure of memory and serve as a fundamental aspect of cultural memory from which groups derive their identities. Beyond the social function of communal spaces, as a spatial claim architecture is a political expression of the territorial imperatives of the state. Consequently, both the political and social significance of physical spaces/places lead to the direct targeting of buildings, landscapes, and recognizable monuments in the processes of war.
As evidenced by the 1991-5 War in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia, culturally-relevant and internationally recognizable symbols of culture, like Stari Most in Bosnia and the Old Town of Dubrovnik, were destroyed with the purpose of manipulating the physical memories of the communities, thereby directly affecting the cultural identities of the communities residing there. As it stands, scholarship on the subject of memory in post-war areas has failed to consider the effects of space/place on memory, consequently failing to provide a viable theoretical framework to explain the interplay of space/place, memory, and identity. This paper is an effort to connect the current scholarship on memory, its function and effects on identity, with the realities of the physical environment in Bosnia, Croatia, and Serbia and their function of imposed confrontation, and thus recollection, of the War. The purpose of my thesis is to put city landscapes (private, uncrated memories) and museum narratives (public, curated memories) in communication to demonstrate how influential a factor space/place is in determining collective memory in a Balkan context. Cultural memory is at once incredibly vulnerable to reconstruction and massively determinate of group identity, thereby necessitating a deeper understanding of its determinant factors and the present uses of such factors.

This thesis seeks to understand how the film Legally Blonde has portrayed the interaction between femininity and women. Specifically, this paper will consider how feminism—defined through the context of the era and Legally Blonde—has empowered women to enter male-dominated professional workspaces—specifically in consideration of the legal profession. The feminism presented in Legally Blonde can be characterized through Elle Wood’s simultaneous displays of intelligence and focus on typical feminine interests: such as marriage, cosmetics, and the like (Marsh, 2005; Lucia, 2005; Hoffman-Longtin & Feldner, 2016). The “third-wave” feminist era surrounding Legally Blonde promotes the duality of women in expressing femininity and holding agentic capability (Dole, 2008). This thesis uses the film’s definition of feminism to consider the changes in women entering the legal profession, the identity of women who connect to the film, and the media’s responses and portrayal of the film. Legally Blonde defines feminism by presenting women as both intelligent and typically feminine—challenging the typical gender role of women in society with her expression of capability and seriousness. While the film elucidates a definition of feminism based on femininity and female agency, some women may not fit into this definition based on the lack of consideration of intersectionality in the film. While the film underlines a changing shift in acceptance of women’s expression of femininity, the film’s message may not apply to all women. Yet, Elle Woods remains a role model for many women to attend law school and her impact is emphasized in popular culture even today.

The North Korean refugee crisis is a long-standing political issue that has persisted since the Korean War, resulting in thousands of North Koreans fleeing each year. However, despite its persistent nature, both the Chinese government and the international community have failed to alleviate systematic migratory issues resulting from Chinese policy towards the refugees. This essay aims to analyze Chinese policy towards the North Korean refugee crisis, specifically through its categorization of North Koreans as “economic migrants” rather than refugees. After reviewing both the conditions within North Korea that cause refugee flight and the pathways of escape through China, the paper shows that China is violating multiple parts of international refugee law as set up by the 1951 Refugee Convention, such as issues of non-refoulement and discrimination. Additionally, I argue that North Koreans are refugees in the traditional definition and refugees sur place. Similarly, this paper discusses the historical and political reasoning for Chinese policy towards refugees in the context of its economic and security relationship with the North Korean state, as well as the implications of the relationships for North Korean refugees. From this, the resilient nature of the crisis is established, as well as the notable security obstacles that must be navigated and incorporated in any feasible solutions. Finally, this paper proposes possible solutions to the crisis, such as moving away from “defector” terminology, linking international policy to refugee outcomes, structuring refugee law around global burden-sharing rather than regional prioritizations, and expanding the definition of refugee to more accurately reflect causes of displacement in Asia.

This thesis discusses the current status of voting rights in the United States. In 1965, Congress passed the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to eliminate various “tests and devices” that disenfranchised minority voters. The Act received bipartisan support and was reauthorized on four separate occasions between 1965 and 2006. In 2013, the Supreme Court in Shelby County v. Holder struck down Section 4(b), a key provision in the Voting Rights Act. After the Court made this decision, states across the country began enacting second-generation voting barriers that have made it more difficult for minority citizens to vote. This is a direct result of the racial fears that emerged after the election of Barack Obama, America’s first black president. The purpose of this paper is to argue that Shelby County v. Holder was wrongly decided, and that Congress must act immediately to restore Section 4(b) of the Voting Rights Act.

This project analyzes the large array of managerial leadership research in congruence with the wide field of workplace communication to attempt to determine the importance of refining communication channels between managers and employees as well as articulate the core competencies a manager should exhibit when practicing exemplary communication in their respective work environment. The preliminary sections of this thesis will establish the currently existing foundations utilized and narrow the wide range of research available to applicable information regarding positive workplace communication, influencing factors in a feedback loop from the employee’s perspective, as well as leadership aspects and actions a manager can alter or initiate to improve their workplace’s environment through communicational refinement. This research is supplemented with a survey that was administered to Arizona State University student leaders who were involved in coordinating the Regional Business Conference on the Polytechnic campus. The survey data is designed to either confirm or contradict the findings of the literature. The objective of this project is to synthesize an overview of a manager’s responsibilities and recommend actions to tailor and improve workplace communication

The goal of this study is to provide an integrative analysis of Sumerian magico-religious practices with special attention paid to demonology and to the Mesopotamian concept of evil. A synthetic approach will help to assess the state of Mesopotamian demonological research, to demonstrate why the so-called “magical” ideas of an ancient civilization are essential to understanding humanity, and to suggest a path forward with “evil” as a lens for historical and cultural understanding. This will be attempted in five phases: first, the terms “magic” and “demons” must be reclaimed as historically useful and contextually appropriate to the Sumerian worldview. Next, we briefly survey how the Sumerians and ancient Mesopotamians understood and participated in magic. Then, we examine the role of demons in the Mesopotamian magical worldview. With this understanding, we write a biography of one demon, Lamaštu, as a case study. Lamaštu played a dominant role in Sumerian magico-religious and magico-medical practices and there is sufficient research to compile a biography for her. Then, Lamaštu is reintegrated into the Sumerian pantheon of demons as an exemplum for further studies.

About one in ten refugees from the American Revolution was African-descended, and unlike many white Loyalists fleeing war in the thirteen mainland North American colonies, black Loyalists were people without a country. Most were fleeing slavery in Virginia or the Carolinas, yet not fully able to claim to be British subjects, despite many heeding the call to join British forces. Among the 40,000 Loyalists who departed, around 3,500 black Loyalists evacuated from the newly founded United States between the years of 1776 and 1785. I hope to evaluate the movement patterns and thought process behind this particular group with what choices they ultimately had after the war using Dunmore’s Proclamation as a means to freedom. These black Loyalists faced the difficult decision in choosing what identity they would side with once they left. These former slaves ultimately had to choose between becoming forced migrants with the losing side of the war or staying with the winning side of the war as people bound by chains. Although there were a multitude of fascinating tales that could be told through the lens of these black Loyalists, one particular family caught my eye within my research. This story is the journey of the Fortune family who chose to run away from American slavery to migrate to Nova Scotia. Their story will grant me access to analyze the extreme discrimination families met as they fled, the contempt the new colonies felt against them, as well as the evolution of their societal roles as some of these immigrants integrated into their new country and became accepted as respected individuals. Furthermore, their tale aided me in understanding what caused some emigrant black Loyalists to stay in Nova Scotia despite the hardships they faced as outsiders who were unwelcome from the perspective of native white Nova Scotians.

As of 2019, 30 US states have adopted abortion-specific informed consent laws that require state health departments to develop and disseminate written informational materials to patients seeking an abortion. Abortion is the only medical procedure for which states dictate the content of informed consent counseling. State abortion counseling materials have been criticized for containing inaccurate and misleading information, but overall, informed consent laws for abortion do not often receive national attention. The objective of this project was to determine the importance of informed consent laws to achieving the larger goal of dismantling the right to abortion. I found that informed consent counseling materials in most states contain a full timeline of fetal development, along with information about the risks of abortion, the risks of childbirth, and alternatives to abortion. In addition, informed consent laws for abortion are based on model legislation called the “Women’s Right to Know Act” developed by Americans United for Life (AUL). AUL calls itself the legal architect of the pro-life movement and works to pass laws at the state level that incrementally restrict abortion access so that it gradually becomes more difficult to exercise the right to abortion established by Roe v. Wade. The “Women’s Right to Know Act” is part of a larger package of model legislation called the “Women’s Protection Project,” a cluster of laws that place restrictions on abortion providers, purportedly to protect women, but actually to decrease abortion access. “Women’s Right to Know” counseling laws do not directly deny access to abortion, but they do reinforce key ideas important to the anti-abortion movement, like the concept of fetal personhood, distrust in medical professionals, the belief that pregnant people cannot be fully autonomous individuals, and the belief that abortion is not an ordinary medical procedure and requires special government oversight. “Women’s Right to Know” laws use the language of informed consent and the purported goal of protecting women to legitimize those ideas, and in doing so, they significantly undermine the right to abortion. The threat to abortion rights posed by laws like the “Women’s Right to Know” laws indicates the need to reevaluate and strengthen our ethical defense of the right to abortion.