Sean Hawkins is an Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Toronto and a former director of African Studies at New College. He is an expert in the study of the relationship between knowledge and its media of construction and transmission, as well as the conflict between human rights and conservation in Africa.

His book Writing and Colonialism in Northern Ghana (2002), was a finalist for the Herskovits Award (presented by the African Studies Association) and the Harold Adams Innis Prize (from the CFHSS), and winner of the Joel Gregory Prize (from the Canadian African Studies Association).

His research interests range widely and include animal and human subjectivity in Anglo-American culture and society,  and temporality and materiality in African History. He has taught a diverse range of classes on topics ranging from Black Freedom: Theory and History, to Writing and Masculinity in Africa to Animal Politics and Science.