Timothy J. Gilfoyle is an American historian from New York who is a professor of history at Loyola University Chicago, where he teaches American urban and social history. He gained a B.A. in 1979, followed by a Ph.D. in history at Columbia University in 1987. He is the former president of the Urban History Association (2015–16). His academic research is mainly concerned with the evolution of 19th-century underworld subcultures and informal economies.