Elizabeth Bainum Hovey, PhD, lived in the Midwest, New England and California prior to attending Dartmouth College where she majored in history and graduated with honors. Possessing a teaching credential, she taught public middle school in California before coming to New York City where she earned her doctorate in United States History at Columbia University while working for the History Channel and in law and public transit. She has taught in the History Department at John Jay College of Criminal Justice since fall 2000. Her research principally centers on the intersection between the law, as one privileged construction of values, and actual social life. In this vein, she has explored at length the history of the enforcement of obscenity laws, particularly in New York during the late 19th century and early 20th century. This subject, and the transformation of the city’s and eventually the nation’s culture in that era will be the focus of her first book, provisionally titled “Stamping Out Smut.” Dr. Hovey’s other interests include McCarthy era legislation and its myriad consequences, intended and otherwise.