Professor Explores Ghostly Encounters in 'The Haunting of Dominican’

Are there really spirits roaming Dominican’s hallways and corners?

Stories of strange phenomena abound around campus, and Dr. Timothy Milinovich, associate professor of theology, shared some of these tales during The Haunting of Dominican, part of the At Home with Dominican series of faculty presentations hosted by the Office of Alumnae/i Relations.

More than 100 guests joined Milinovich for the Oct. 19 program.

“Dominican is unique in the sense that there are numerous tales, numerous stories about hauntings for almost every single building on campus — except one,” Milinovich said. “The other thing that’s unique about Dominican is that these stories persist. I continue to get stories from students or individuals about strange phenomena and strange events taking place.”

Take the Fine Arts Building, for instance. Faculty have reported hearing pianos playing in the third-floor practice rooms late at night, only to find no one in the rooms when they come up to inspect them.

“A lot of our ghosts play piano,” Milinovich said. “There’s a lot of piano-playing going on in the afterlife at Dominican.”

Footsteps in empty hallways, knocks on doors with no one on the other side, the sound of singing coming from empty theaters, and elevator doors opening on their own have all been reported as well, he said.

Other so-called haunted sites where voices or unusual sounds have been heard include the Noonan Reading Room and Rosary Chapel. In the Social Hall, students have reported seeing the cherubs in the painting of the Blessed Mother start laughing, Milinovich noted.

“One of the most intriguing things about Dominican is that it doesn’t matter how old the building is or how new it is, you can still have ghost stories,” he said. “Even new buildings like Parmer still have ghost stories as well.”

Beyond these stories, Milinovich discussed the ways that theology, horror and biblical studies intersect.

“We have a tendency to over-sacralize theology and over-negativize horror,” Milinovich said. “But theology is not all about angels dancing on the head of a pin. Theology is also about the muck and the mire of life and the challenges of evil and how we wrestle through that, how we pursue justice and an understanding of an ultimate divine agent in this. And horror is not all gore. There is a lot that horror tries to instill and understand.”

The full video of Milinovich’s presentation can be viewed here, or the podcast version can be found on Spotify (or wherever you get your podcasts.)