Feb. 4, 2011 | Philadelphia Daily News
Professor's family witnesses history in Egypt. What started as a winter getaway to visit family in Cairo ended up as a brush with history for Shereen Abou-Gharbia and her mother — eyewitnesses to events that could help reshape the Middle East. They were intending to meet Shereen's father, Magid Abou-Gharbia, a professor at Temple's School of Pharmacy and director of the Moulder Center for Drug Discovery Research. He had been scheduled to speak at a conference that was canceled. Despite the violence, Abou-Gharbia is heartened. "This was long overdue," he said. "The future will be good for us."
February 1, 2011 | 6ABC
A million-man march was scheduled today in Cairo and Alexandria in Egypt. Magid Abou-Gharbia, a professor at Temple's School of Pharmacy who is from Egypt, travels to his homeland several times a year and is watching events there closely. Abou-Gharbia thinks that Mubarak will be replaced in the short- and long-term by reasonable patriots who will seriously change Egypt for the better. "There will be transition and good people will be elected and life will go back to normal," he said.
January 25, 2011 | Chronicle of Higher Education
Japan's top university and business leaders have announced they will come together to reverse a steady slide in the country's global standing by focusing on a growing mismatch between the needs of industry and academe. But some experts are already warning that the plan will not work. "It's just another example of round up the usual suspects with no real agenda nor any other expected outcome than hope and a prayer," says Bruce Stronach, dean of Temple University, Japan Campus. Stronach, an adviser on education reform, wants the government to focus on the quality of education inside the bulk of Japan's universities, rather than research inside the best 13.
January 21, 2011 | FOX News (link unavailable)
The seizure of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran back in 1979 was a low point in American history. Americans followed every step of that crisis as employees of the Iranian embassy were held hostage for 444 days. Thirty years after their ordeal those former hostages are returning to the site of their homecoming, holding a reunion at the U.S. Military Academy. "Right from the beginning Americans took these hostages — their fellow Americans — to heart," said Temple historian David Farber, author of Taken Hostage: The Iran Hostage Crisis and America's First Encounter with Radical Islam.
January 19, 2011 | Scientific American
Are Chinese moms superior? Developmental psychologist Laurence Steinberg of Temple weighed in on that controversial claim by self-proclaimed "tiger mother" Amy Chua. Chua's book has drawn criticism for promoting harsh parenting techniques. "There are certainly elements in what she is espousing that have scientific evidence that they constitute good parenting. Kids need limits and structure, and it's good for parents to have high expectations for them," said Steinberg. "On the other hand...if parenting becomes too authoritarian ... those parenting practices have been shown to be related to elevated anxiety, depression and psychosomatic problems."
January 18, 2011 | Washington Post
Relations between China and Japan turned sour last September when a Chinese fishing boat collided near disputed territory with two Japanese patrol vessels. Now, in Japan, public sentiment toward China has hit its lowest point in decades. In China, people are finding jobs and have fewer reasons to worry, said Phil Deans, of Temple University, Japan Campus. "But on the Japanese side, the anti-Chinese sentiment has spread from just the typical crazies to the disaffected youth. Graduates are not finding jobs, the country isn't growing, and in a period like that you kind of want something to complain about."
January 12, 2011 | Reuters
China raised regional concern last year with its tough stance in disputes over islands in the South and East China Seas. Worries about China's military buildup and aggressive diplomacy are bolstering its neighbors' desire to see Washington stay committed to the region. "China has undone a lot of the good of its 'smile diplomacy'...trying to reassure the region that a rising China is not a threatening China," said Jeffrey Kingston of Temple University, Japan Campus. "Now people are reconsidering that....In Southeast Asia and Japan, there's a greater sense of appreciation for the U.S. presence as a counter-balance to China's military power."
January 7, 2011 | Philadelphia Inquirer
At issue in a contentious U.S. District Court hearing in Philadelphia: Does a local lawyer have to disclose his most private communications in a lawsuit, filed in Ecuador, against energy giant Chevron? "There is no international law requirement that a court in one country has to enforce a judgment from a court in [another] country," said Duncan Hollis, an international law expert at Temple's Beasley School of Law and a former State Department lawyer.
