Strengths and Weaknesses of the U.S.-Based Refugee Resettlement Program: A Survey of International Rescue Committee Employee Perceptions

The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is among nine agencies in the United States that resettles refugees. There are two core national resettlement programs: the State Department\u27s Reception and Placement (R&P and the Health and Human Services\u27 (HHS) Matching Grant (MG). These two programs largely have been designed to accomplish refugee self-sufficiency by way of early employment programming and services. Resettlement agencies, such as the IRC, are now beginning to initiate other program areas aside from early employment such as health and wellness, children and youth, and other concepts of financial literacy and economic empowerment. This staff self-sufficiency study surveyed IRC field staff, known in this dissertation as employees, to gain a better understanding of the efficacy and effectiveness of the U.S. resettlement program and as a way to consider more integrative concepts of programs and program evaluation. There is a dearth of empirical research, data, and analysis regarding resettlement programs based in the U.S. and especially in regard to understanding employee perceptions. Therefore, this study is one approach to better understanding, capturing, and tracking (through a database and analysis) meaningful information regarding services provided to refugees in the U.S. The overall study finding is that IRC employees see self-sufficiency as incorporating early and long-term employment, financial understanding (such as knowing financial management), the ability to advocate for oneself, self-reliance, and non-dependence on government assistance. Further, IRC employees appear to believe in an integrated approach to working with refugees and service provision. Based on the findings from the study and the literature review, the dissertation recommends practice, research, and advocacy to expand the current definition of refugee self-sufficiency, gather more quantifiable information on the current resettlement program, build stronger data tracking and program evaluation, and support program growth. This process has already begun to be embraced at the IRC

Curing the common soul : rethinking Byzantine heresy through the literary motif of disease (11th-12th centuries)

This thesis explores the literary topos in which heresy is defined in terms of disease, focusing particular attention on the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos (1081-1118). By examining the portrayals of two heretics – the philosopher Ioannes Italos and the dualist Bogomil heresiarch Basileios – in a body of interrelated source material, conclusions are drawn related to the contemporary thought-world, which influenced the authors, their works and their understanding of the heterodox threat. This, in turn, is used to gain insight into the contemporary dynamics of imperial propaganda and power. There are four main chapters, the first of which discusses the methodological approach adopted throughout this study. This section treats various questions related to the problems inherent in heresy scholarship, such as the ever-changing definition of ‘heresy’ and the use of source material that is fundamentally antagonistic towards the heretical subject. The second chapter traces the transmission of the focal topos, ‘heresy as disease’, within heresiology from its origins in the fourth-century Panarion of the bishop Epiphanios of Salamis up to the twelfth century, where it is found used prevalently by the court of Alexios I. Chapter three then offers a detailed analysis of the primary sources that are employed in the case studies of Italos and Basileios: Anna Komnene’s Alexias, Euthymios Zygabenos’s Panoplia Dogmatike, the Synodikon of Orthodoxy and trial proceedings preserved from the synodal examination of Italos. The final chapter explores the surviving presentations of both men – their depictions as ‘outsiders’ and the specific association developed between their teachings and disease – within the context of the newly emerging and insecure Komnenian dynasty. ‘Heresy as disease’ is found to transmit an ideological framework, allowing Alexios to reinforce his unstable position by capitalising on the image of the great Orthodox doctor, providing a cure for the common soul

Countering al-Qaeda’s Ideology: Re-assessing U.S. Policy Ten Years After 9/11

Created as part of the 2011 Jackson School for International Studies SIS 495: Task Force. The Honorable Adam Smith, Task Force Advisor; David Kilcullen, Evaluator; Sam Combs and Annie van Hees, Coordinators.The U.S. has made sweeping changes to its national defense strategic goals and objectives since 9/11. In response to the rise in prominence of al-Qaeda and it‘s extremist ideology, the U.S. established the Department of Homeland Security, created the Office of Director of National Intelligence, and adopted new legal definitions for detention and interrogation policy. The U.S. has expanded intelligence-gathering and information-sharing mechanisms and learned to fight an enemy that wears no official uniform, that has no borders, and that represents no sovereign state. During the same period the U.S. government launched military contingency operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, deploying hundreds of thousands of troops