Kristin Kobes
Du Mez, Ph.D.

Historian / Writer / Speaker

Professor of History, Calvin University
Senior Democracy Fellow, Public Religion Research Institute

Bio

Kristin Kobes Du Mez is the New York Times bestselling author of Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation. She holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame and serves as Professor of History at Calvin University and Senior Democracy Fellow at the Public Religion Research Institute. Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion, and politics, and she has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service, and Christianity Today, among other outlets. A frequent voice in the national and international media, she has been featured on NPR, PBS, CBS, and the BBC, and in national media outlets around the world. She has appeared in nearly a dozen documentaries and produced her own documentary, For Our Daughters (directed by Carl Byker), in 2024. Her most recent book is Live Laugh Love: The Secret History of White Christian Women and the World They Made (2026).