Past event
Smith Lecture Spring 2026: Kristin Kobes Du Mez The secret history of Christian women: purity, power and the end of the American century
Each semester, an outstanding female scholar from any sub-discipline of Divinity is invited to St Andrews to deliver the Smith Lecture in memory of Agnes Lewis and Margaret Dunlop (both née Smith), twin sisters from Ayrshire, whose contribution to Divinity led to the award of honorary doctorates in 1901 by the University.
A Smith Lecturer addresses a wide-ranging audience of undergraduates, postgraduates and staff and also meets informally with female students who might be interested in pursuing an academic career in the discipline.
Kristin Kobes Du Mez is a New York Times bestselling author and Professor of History at Calvin University, as well as a Senior Democracy Fellow with the Public Religion Research Institute.
Her research focuses on the intersection of gender, religion and politics. She has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Religion News Service and Christianity Today, and has been interviewed on NPR, CBS and the BBC, among other outlets. Her most recent book is Jesus and John Wayne: how white Evangelicals corrupted a faith and fractured a nation. Her next book, Live, Laugh, Love, is expected in September 2026.
Kristin holds the William Spoelhof Teacher-Scholar-in-Residence Chair at Calvin University, where she also served as Department Chair. She is a Distinguished Associate at the Institute for Christian Studies (Toronto) and served as a Fellow at the University of Notre Dame's Center for Philosophy of Religion from 2024 to 2025.
She previously taught at Calvin Theological Seminary, Williams College and the University of Notre Dame, and holds a PhD from the University of Notre Dame.