Sean Forner

Sean Forner is an Associate Professor of History at Michigan State University (MSU) and Core Faculty at the Center for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies. His academic work focuses on 20th-century Europe, particularly Germany, examining intersections of intellectual history and political culture. He explores democratic renewal post-World Wars, memory studies, and transnational intellectual movements. His first book, German Intellectuals and the Challenge of Democratic Renewal: Culture and Politics after 1945 (Cambridge, 2014), analyzes post-Nazi German visions of democracy. Current research investigates Europe’s 1950s ‘First New Left’ and its legacies.

Education: B.A., Stanford University; Ph.D., University of Chicago. He joined MSU in 2007 after teaching at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research has been supported by prestigious fellowships including the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and DAAD, with visits to German institutions like the Free University of Berlin and Humboldt University.

Research interests include democratic theory, Cold War intellectual networks, and methodological debates in historiography. Teaching spans European Union history, Weimar Germany, comparative revolutions, and graduate seminars on social theory.

Scientific awards include visiting fellowships across Europe and grants from the American Philosophical Society, Volkswagen Foundation, and Mellon Foundation. His publications span 2002–2022, addressing topics from Weimar monuments to Cold War socialist thought.