Allyson Hobbs is an assistant professor of American history.  She received a B.A. from Harvard and a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.  Her doctoral dissertation examined the phenomenon of racial passing in the United States from the moment when passing became a problem in the late eighteenth century to the moment when it reportedly “passed out” in the 1950s.  Her study makes an effort to better understand African American group identity and racial affinity by bringing into focus those who disclaimed it.  She focuses on 19th- and early 20th-century American history and African American social and cultural history.  Her research interests include racial mixture, migration and urbanization, and the intersections of race, class and gender.