Leon Fink (born January 9, 1948) is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
The program sponsors workshops on teaching history for elementary and secondary public school social studies teachers.
Fink's 1994 book, In Search of the Working Class: Essays in American Labor History and Political Culture, drew attention for its focus on the role of the historian.
The essays in the book highlight the role of the historian as an outside observer of a basic unit of culture and economics as the worker, and what constitutes the "working class."
Fink's third book, 1998's Progressive Intellectuals and the Dilemmas of Democratic Commitment, drew attention in the field of history for its focus on the tension which arises when educated historians study relatively uneducated workers.
In June 2003, Fink and the entire staff left Labor History in a dispute with the journal's publisher, Taylor and Francis.
That same year, he was elected to a three-year term as a vice president for the American Historical Association's (AHA) Teaching Division.