Arts & Minds from Dominican University

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.

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.  

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.

Why Do We Forget? Using Sea Slugs to Understand Memory and Memory Loss
Dr. Irina Calin-Jageman and Dr. Robert Calin-Jageman share the results of their research with Aplysia californica (i.e., sea slugs) to help determine why neural connections are lost and, in some cases, regained.

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.  

Dr. Marion Weedermann delivered the 2020 Lund-Gill Lecture titled – Women in Mathematics, Contributions with Long-Lasting Impact

Throughout history, women were considered inferior to men in their ability to think abstractly and logically. Despite that, some women broke barriers and made significant contributions to the advancement of mathematics. Today, more and more women are entering the field of mathematics. This talk gives a brief overview of women in history who contributed to the development of mathematics and focus on current female mathematicians who have developed ideas that influence our lives today.