Allyson Hobbs is an assistant professor in the Department of History at Stanford University. She graduated magna cum laude from Harvard University and received a Ph.D. with distinction from the University of Chicago. She has received fellowships from the Ford Foundation and the Clayman Institute for Gender Research.
Allyson teaches courses on American identity, African American history, African American women's history, and twentieth century American history. She has won numerous teaching awards including the Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Prize. She has appeared on C-Span and National Public Radio and her work has been featured on cnn.com and slate.com. Allyson's first book, A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life, published by Harvard University Press, examines the phenomenon of racial passing in the United States from the late eighteenth century to the present.