Rate My Professor Keith Griffler

Keith Griffler is an associate professor in the Department of Africana and American Studies at the University at Buffalo, a position he has held since joining the faculty in 2005. Prior to this, he served as an associate professor in the Department of African American Studies at the University of Cincinnati. Griffler obtained his PhD in History from Ohio State University in 1993, an MA in History from the same institution in 1990, and a BA Summa Cum Laude in History from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1989. Within the department, he has taken on significant leadership roles, including chair from 2008 to 2016, interim chair in 2022, and currently serves as Director of Undergraduate Studies. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center.

A specialist in the history of the Black liberation struggle, Keith Griffler's academic interests span the history and political economy of Africa and its diaspora, along with the nexus of race, gender, and class in the making of the modern world. His specified fields of interest are African American and Black world history, transnationalism and modernity, and political economy. Notable publications include The Freedom Movement's Lost Legacy: Black Abolitionism since Emancipation (University Press of Kentucky, 2023) and Front Line of Freedom: African Americans and the Forging of the Underground Railroad in the Ohio Valley (University Press of Kentucky, 2004). Earlier work includes What Price Alliance? Black Radicals Confront White Labor, 1918-1938. Griffler co-wrote, co-produced, and co-directed the historical documentary “Wade in the Water” in 2002, which earned first place in the National Broadcasting Society’s National Professional Production category. His research has been funded by a Charles Phelps Taft Fellowship and a major grant from the Ohio Historical Society. Through his scholarship, Griffler highlights the central role of African Americans in key historical movements such as the Underground Railroad and interracial labor alliances.