Sean Griffin is a historian of nineteenth-century America with research interests in transnational slavery and antislavery, radical social and political movements, capitalism, urbanism, and intellectual and political history. His first book, The Root and the Branch: Working-Class Reform and Antislavery, 1790–1860, was recently published by Penn Press.

Sean has taught history at several New York City area colleges and has received several prestigious awards, including postdoctoral fellowships from the Massachusetts Historical Society, the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Library Company of Philadelphia, and the American Antiquarian Society. In addition to his work as a scholar and teacher, Sean has contributed to museum exhibitions and projects at the Center for Brooklyn History, the New-York Historical Society, and other public history institutions.