Kristin Kobes Du Mez is the William Spoelhof Chair and Professor of History and Gender Studies at Calvin University. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics in recent American history and she is the author of the New York Times bestselling Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation (Liveright 2020).
Du Mez’s bylines include The New York Times, the Washington Post, Daily Beast, Religion & Politics, Religion News Service, NBC News.com, and Christianity Today. Her work has garnered extensive national and international attention, as a feature on NPR’s Morning Edition, PBS’s Amanpour & Co, CNN, and the BBC, and in national outlets in China, Japan, Canada, Australia, Spain, Brazil, Germany, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. Du Mez is a frequent commenter on religion and politics in the national media at outlets such as the Washington Post, NPR, CBS, Newsweek, and CNN.
Her first book, A New Gospel for Women: Katharine Bushnell and the Challenge of Christian Feminism (Oxford 2015), examines the longer history of Christianity and feminism in America. She is currently writing Live Laugh Love, a cultural study of white Christian womanhood that examines women’s consumer culture—from prairie romance to MLMs to Hallmark movies—through the lenses of postfeminism and neoliberalism.
Du Mez grew up in Sioux Center, Iowa, and has a BA from Dordt University and a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. She has lived in Florida, New York, and Germany, and currently resides in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She is a frequent speaker at universities, churches, and faith groups across the country. She is also a prolific Tweeter (@kkdumez), and you can find more of her work at kristindumez.com and kristindumez.substack.com.