Mar 4, 2022

Dr. Walker Reid Cosgrove to Serve as 2022 Commencement Speaker

The 2022 Commencement speaker will be Dr Walker Reid Cosgrove

Dr. Walker Reid Cosgrove, professor of history at Dordt University, will serve as speaker at this year’s commencement ceremony, which will be held on Friday, May 13, at 10 a.m. in the B.J. Haan Auditorium.

Trained as a medievalist, Cosgrove has taught courses such as “Dante and the Italian Renaissance,” “Modern Middle East,” and “Roots of Western Culture and Worldviews” at Dordt for the past 10 years. Particularly in his ancient and medieval history courses, Cosgrove seeks to understand how prophets, poets, dramatists, philosophers, and theologians wrestled with the human condition and life’s most persistent questions of meaning and purpose. He holds a doctorate degree in Medieval Europe from Saint Louis University, a master’s degree in church history from Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, and a bachelor’s degree in history from Taylor University. In 2016, Cosgrove received Dordt’s Teaching Excellence Award. He lives in Sioux Center with his wife and daughter, and they can often be found on their front porch or working in their flower garden.

For his commencement speech, Cosgrove plans to speak on living a life of love.

“When asked, essentially, what was at the heart of the Christian life, Jesus offered the simple, yet profound notion of a life centered on love for God and love for neighbor—that somehow, everything else flowed from this love,” he explains.

Cosgrove says he is blessed to work with great colleagues every single day.

“I also really enjoy working with students, and teaching in the Core Program allows me the wonderful opportunity to interact with students of all majors across campus,” he says.

As an institution of higher education committed to the Reformed Christian perspective, Dordt University equips students, faculty, alumni, and the broader community to work toward Christ-centered renewal in all aspects of contemporary life. Dordt, located in Sioux Center, Iowa, is a comprehensive university named to the best college lists by U.S. News and World Report, Forbes.com, The Wall Street Journal, Washington Monthly, and Princeton Review. To learn more, visit dordt.edu.


A picture of campus behind yellow prairie flowers