Ely, Christopher

This thesis seeks to analyze Pan-Arabism through the lens of the United Arab Republic. I
argue that even though the UAR faced many internal issues, it ultimately failed due to
external pressures. I argue this to provide a new perspective on the Middle East and the
Arab world, by showing how it came to be as it is. I organize my thesis into four
chapters: I. Introduction: Arab Unity and its Limits, II. The Marriage of Syria and Egypt,
III. The UAR and the Cold War IV. The Collapse of the United Arab Republic. I analyze
the factors that brought both Egypt and Syria together to create the first democratically
united state in the Arab World, and how it had lasting affects upon the Arab World.

Media are constantly evolving and these changes have significantly altered our ways of thinking and our identities. In this thesis I discuss digital media – more specifically the Internet and social media – and their impact on the formation of identity. I undertake this examination by turning to previous changes in media technologies and how they have impacted identity formation. I use salient examples in the form of media personae to illustrate how identity formation is viewed and changes over time. I intend to demonstrate that the advancements made through social media and the Internet have resulted in the formation of “imaginary” identities that provide individuals in the digital era with a great degree of freedom to self-fashion their own identities. This new malleable and multi-dimensioned human identity is the basis for a new forms of social life, learning, and social control.