Michael Lee Conniff (born 1942) is a historian of Latin America, who specializes on modern Brazil and Panama. Between 2002-12 he also created and directed the Global Studies program and afterward served as professor of history at San Jose State University, California. He retired in 2012. He has a longstanding interest in the study of populism and Africans in Latin America.. Conniff earned his BA in Latin American Studies at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1968, followed by an MA in the same field at Stanford in 1969.