Temple Theater faculty member’s new play tackles aggression among girls
Odd Girl Out, a world-premiere play created by Associate Dean of the Division of Theater, Film and Media Arts Doug Wager, was the subject of a feature story on the front page of the Inquirer’s “Local” section. (The online version includes a photo gallery.) Wager plunged into the hidden culture of aggression among girls after his daughter was cyberbullied two years ago. Odd Girl Out includes verbatim material gathered in research conducted by the play’s student cast. “It’s what you strive for as an artist,” Wager told theater majors during a class. “When do the head and the heart meet? When are you healing yourself in the process of healing others?” The all-female cast had many painful memories to draw on. “To this day, [being bullied] hurts me,” said junior Anna Snapp, “and it hurts me every day.”
Philadelphia Inquirer | April 23, 2014

Tharps joins NPR’s Morning Edition to discuss Army’s new hair policies
The U.S. Army is banning some hairstyles popular among African-American women. The stated goal is professionalism, but some soldiers and even members of the Congressional Black Caucus are upset. To understand what’s behind the stir, David Greene of Morning Edition spoke to Temple’s Lori Tharps, author of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America. “The policy does not take into consideration the history and culture, as well as the … biological makeup of black hair and what it requires,” Tharps said. “They have effectively deemed inappropriate some of the most effective and popular hairstyles that many of these women wear.”
National Public Radio | April 21, 2014

Student loans after a divorce? Temple Law professor’s advice in Wall Street Journal
For many couples, marriage means taking on a spouse’s student loans. That debt can lead to surprises for those who end up divorcing. In some jurisdictions, a professional degree earned during the marriage can be considered marital property, says Rachel Rebouché, who teaches family law in Temple’s Beasley School of Law. Degree earners may have to compensate a spouse for supporting his or her educational pursuits. Support for a spouse could mean time spent cooking meals, driving the degree earner to campus or even delaying one’s own educational pursuits, Rebouché told The Wall Street Journal. In some cases, she says, courts have awarded more property to the supporter to offset the value of a partner’s degree.
Wall Street Journal | April 13, 2014

Podiatry’s Palamarchuk and his students return to Boston Marathon
When the Boston Marathon started on Monday, Howard Palamarchuk of Temple’s School of Podiatric Medicine was there, in a tent just beyond the finish line. For the past 29 years, he has taken 10 to 12 students of podiatric medicine to Boston. “These are the students who’ve given a hard four years of work. It’s like a road trip for them. They have fun,” he said. After runners finish the race, they can take a detour into the tent to get checked and treated, if necessary. But last year, bombs turned the tent into a trauma center. Matthew Rementer, one of the Temple students, remembers “everyone coming together; how well everyone functioned in that tent … The trauma surgeons and ER doctors helped lead the treatment while everyone stayed calm and just did what they had been trained to do.”
Comcast SportsNet, Philadelphia Inquirer, NBC10 | April 20-22, 2014

How to future-proof news apps: SMC faculty member’s column at PBS’ MediaShift
“Let’s say that you’re a historian in 2064 and you want to look at the New York Times for a view of how journalists represented celebrity fashion in the early 2000s,” wrote Meredith Broussard of Temple’s Department of Journalism. “You could pull images of the pages of newsprint that hold Oscar photos, but what you’d really want is to see the Times’ 2014 Red Carpet Project news app that shows 19 years of Oscar ensembles. Will you be able to view the app as 2014 viewers saw it? If today’s news developers figure out future-proofing, you should be able to. A small but growing set of developers and archivists is beginning to think about how to preserve today’s news apps for future generations.”
PBS | April 23, 2014

Kingston in New York Times: What’s behind China’s actions in search for lost jet?
Why did a Chinese government vessel join the search for a missing Malaysia Airlines plane? That mission has been a prime opportunity for China to demonstrate its determination and technological abilities to its domestic audience, and to improve on its “late and tepid” response to a typhoon in the Philippines last year. “This is a chance for China to regain some of its lost prestige and show the world what it’s capable of,” said Jeff Kingston of Temple University, Japan Campus. “There’s a lot of prestige on the line here.” But the search also has brought China into close contact with regional competitors who have been uneasy with China’s willingness to project force across a wider area of the globe.
New York Times | April 11-13, 2014

Faculty op-ed on how to reduce overdose deaths
Pennsylvania needs legislation to promote quicker action in emergencies, argued Scott Burris of Temple’s Beasley School of Law in an op-ed he co-authored. “A growing number of states have taken action to promote two simple practices that everyday people can take to save the life of someone experiencing a drug overdose: Call 911 and administer an effective antidote,” Burris wrote. “Pennsylvania legislators are looking at alternative legislation, and those who fear losing a loved one to a drug overdose want to make sure they get it right.” Burris and co-author Alice Bell are members of the Pennsylvania Overdose Prevention Action Network.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, philly.com, Erie Times-News | April 19-24, 2014

Film by Temple student to be shown at prestigious festival
The film is grim: A young woman’s husband is incapacitated by a neurological condition, leaving her to care for him and their baby. For the film’s producer, Rob Wunder III, the predicament is all too familiar. After an accident in high school left him quadriplegic, his father gave up teaching to live with him in a residence hall while Wunder studied film at Temple. The 15-minute film he produced as a senior, Sweepstakes, was one of 58 shorts selected from more than 3,000 entries to be shown at the Tribeca Film Festival. Wunder and classmate Mark Tumas, who wrote the film, credited other Temple students, including cinematographer David Dominguez and editor Ben Wellington. Film and Media Arts instructor Rodney Evans advised them and helped secure the lead actress.
Philadelphia Inquirer | April 16, 2014

The story of Jewkebox, Temple’s Jewish a cappella group
Why did Aimee Goldstein co-found Temple University’s only Jewish a cappella group? “I wanted to make my mark at the university doing something good and benefitting not just Jewish singers and [Hillel at Temple]—I wanted to leave a musical mark” on the entire campus, said the theater major from Northeast Philadelphia. Goldstein paired up with friend Hilary Klapholz, a music-education major from Cheltenham, to form Jewkebox in 2012. The group, which had its debut concert April 19 in Klein Hall on Temple’s Main Campus, is carrying on a vocal tradition that has been around since the very first religious services began incorporating music into liturgies.
Jewish Exponent | April 17, 2014

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