Mulder ’95 Returns to Campus for Several Speaking Engagements

Dr. Mark Mulder ‘95, professor of sociology at Calvin University and graduate of Trinity in history and communication arts, recently returned to campus for several engagement opportunities with the College community and broader public.

Mulder is the author of Shades of White Flight: Evangelical Congregations & Urban Departure, which Trinity faculty and staff reading groups read together this past summer. That book explores the “white flight”  that occurred in the Chicago neighborhoods of Englewood and Roseland, where seven entire church congregations from one denomination, the Christian Reformed Church, left the city in the 1960s and 1970s and relocated their churches to nearby suburbs. Mulder’s book investigates the migration of these Chicago church members, revealing how these churches not only failed to inhibit white flight, but actually facilitated the congregations’ departure.

Mulder’s visit encompassed several different conversations and lectures. That included an author conversation, sponsored by the Faculty Development Committee, and a lunchtime conversation, sponsored by the Center for Teaching & the Good Life, surrounding the question, “How do we ensure our vision of the good life is accessible to all human beings?”

Mulder also provided a public lecture entitled “Shades of White Flight: Reckoning with Racialized Legacies,” sponsored by the Office of the Provost.