In this At Home with Dominican episode, Professor Timothy Milinovich shared some of the ghost stories that have been passed down over the years from the halls of Dominican's gothic buildings and campus (is that an organ playing, mysteriously, late at night?). He also shared some insights on how theology, horror, and biblical studies intersect.

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Discussing the connections between the past and the present, as we face a challenging pandemic, Dr. Margaret McGuinness, historian of American Catholicism, reflects on religious responses to outbreaks of disease.  Focusing on the rolling outbreaks of Yellow Fever in the United States in the 19th century, Dr. McGuinness looks at the Dominican efforts to achieve both caritas and veritas in the midst of epidemiological outbreaks in the Mississippi valley.  This talk will also open the McGreal Center exhibition about how the Dominican family has faced disease in the American past  and their modern efforts in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.  The exhibit is available in person at Dominican University, and other Dominican institutions across the country.  Links to the digital exhibition are available on the McGreal Center site.

This talk highlights a chapter in the McGreal Center’s new sponsored book, Preaching with their Lives: Dominicans on Mission in the United States After 1850, and is a part of a 2021 speaker series sponsored by the McGreal Center and the St Catherine of Siena Center at Dominican University, to highlight recent research in Dominican history, featured in our newly released book.

Delving into what are perhaps the modern-day equivalents of this biblical reference, Dominican University neuroscience professor Robert Calin-Jagemen takes us on a lively and thought provoking journey through "the past, present, and future of neuro-engineering for moral perfection".

From the Caritas Veritas Symposium archives. Recorded in November 2013.

You can also watch the presentation on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/embed/TDUzwy1RPig

Dr. Heath Carter, historian of American religious history at Princeton Theological Seminary, discusses the legacy of Dominican women advocating for economic justice in the early 20th century. Focusing on Dominican Sister Vincent Ferrer, a Sinsinawa Dominican Sister, Dr. Carter will talk about her efforts in the early 20th century in advocating Catholic social teaching, applied to the economic challenges of the period.  Leveraging the Dominican tradition of study, Sr. Vincent Ferrer led a national speaking campaign to advocate for social justice in economic policy.  This episode examines the connections between our current economic challenges and the role of religious communities in leading the discussion for economic change.

This talk highlights a chapter in the McGreal Center’s new sponsored book, Preaching with their Lives: Dominicans on Mission in the United States After 1850, and is a part of a 2021 speaker series sponsored by the McGreal Center and the St Catherine of Siena Center at Dominican University, to highlight recent research in Dominican history, featured in our newly released book.

Developed by interns in the University Ministry Center with a grant from the Interfaith Youth Corps, Soul Stories was launched at the Better Together Coffeehouses on campus. Each event was curated around a particular topic and students worked with faculty and staff to hone their individual narratives.  The theme of this event was I Am Migration and the SOUL STORIES student storytellers stepped up to share their personal experiences.

On March 18, 2021, Sr. Cecilia Murray, historian of American religious history and Dominican Sister of Hope, joined us via Zoom to discuss the Dominican response to the American longing for contemplative life.  While some Americans found a cloistered life of prayer strange, others longed to live in communities of faith devoted to prayer, meditation, and contemplation.  In the midst of a busy and chaotic modern world, these communities were a witness to the desire to withdraw and meditate on spiritual mysteries.  

This talk highlights a chapter in the McGreal Center’s new sponsored book, Preaching with their Lives: Dominicans on Mission in the United States After 1850, “Dominican Monasteries: Ever Ancient, Ever New.” This discussion is a part of a 2021 speaker series sponsored by the McGreal Center and the St Catherine of Siena Center at Dominican University, to highlight recent research in Dominican history, featured in our newly released book.

This event was presented in partnership with the Catholic and Dominican Institute at Mount St. Mary College, Newburgh, NY.

In November 2019, Dr. Peter Hudis of Oakton Community College visited Dominican University to talk about climate change and the "Green New Deal". 

Dr. Hudis has written widely on Marxist theory and contemporary politics and is the author of Marx's Concept of the Alternative to Capitalism, and Frantz Fanon: Philosopher on the Barricades. He is General Editor of The Complete Works of Rosa Luxemburg (three volumes have appeared so far).

For more about the International Humanist-Marxist Organzation, visit: https://imhojournal.org/about/

Recorded on March 16, 2021, history professor Dr. Cynthia Taylor, and IBEW Organizer Eileen Pierce discussed their research into the history of Dominican Sisters’ involvement in the sanctuary movement in California.  In the 1980s, Dominican Sisters of San Rafael made a corporate and public stance in support of providing sanctuary for Salvadoran refugees, fleeing civil war and violence in El Salvador.  Despite the federal government’s refusal to recognize them as refugees, these people were classified as undocumented immigrants, thus in danger of deportation.  In a time of renewed discussion of undocumented immigration and asylum, we will hear about the San Rafael Sisters’ efforts to organize in order to offer sanctuary to these families.  We will discuss the links between their research and our current reckoning over the demands of social justice for undocumented immigrants fleeing violence in Central America.

This talk highlights a chapter in the McGreal Center’s new sponsored book, Preaching with their Lives: Dominicans on Mission in the United States After 1850, and is a part of a 2021 speaker series sponsored by the McGreal Center and the Siena Center at Dominican University, highlighting recent research in Dominican history, featured in our newly released book.

On October 6, 2020 co-authors Luis Daniel Gascón and Aaron Roussell, joined Dr. Clinton Nichols of the Dominican University Sociology and Criminology department to discuss the research and findings from their book The Limits of Community Policing: Civilian Power and Police Accountability in Black and Brown Los Angeles

Addressing conflicts between police and communities, the authors depart from traditional conceptions, arguing that community policing—popularized for  decades as a racial panacea—is not the solution it seems to be.

Why Do We Forget? Using Sea Slugs to Understand Memory and Memory Loss

Aplysia californica–a type of ‘sea slug’ that has become a favorite organism for studying learning and memory.  Why?  Aplysia have  both short- and long-term memory for basic types of associative and non-associative learning (they can learn simple things and can remember what they learn for a reasonably long time).  We can figure out how these animals learn because they have only 20,000 neurons in their entire CNS  (compare this to the 1 million or so in a honey bee or the 60-80 billion in your head).  Moreover, Aplysia have some of the largest neurons in the animal kingdom, with some neuron diameters reach up to 1mm!  This makes it easier to record the electrical activity in Aplysia neurons and to harvest them for molecular and cellular analysis.  

You can read more about the Calin-Jageman's research on their blog page The Slug Lab.

This event was part of the At Home With Dominican series presented via Zoom to university alumni on October 6, 2020.