Emily Hobson

Emily Hobson is an historian of radicalism, sexuality, and race in the United States, and an interdisciplinary scholar of queer studies, American Studies, and critical ethnic studies. Her research centers on radical movements in the latter half of the 20th century, especially LGBTQ, anti-racist, and anti-imperialist politics. Throughout her work, she investigates how seemingly disconnected social movements shape one another — for example, how anti-war activism informed gay liberation and lesbian feminism, and how HIV/AIDS and prison movements worked together. She is the author of two books, Lavender and Red: Liberation and Solidarity in the Gay and Lesbian Left, and (with Dan Berger) Remaking Radicalism: A Grassroots Documentary Reader of the United States, 1973-2001. Her newest book project examines the history of HIV/AIDS activism by, for, and with imprisoned people 1980s and 1990s United States.

She is Chair of the Department of Gender, Race, and Identity (GRI), and as Associate Professor in GRI and in the Department of History. Recent honors include research fellowships from Smith College (2019) and the ONE Archives Foundation (2019); the University’s Mousel-Feltner Award for Excellence in Research (2017); and the Joan Heller-Diane Bernard Fellowship from the Center for LGBTQ Studies at the City University of New York (2014).