Heidi Kaufman

Heidi Kaufman is an Associate Professor of English at the University of Oregon’s College of Arts and Sciences, where she also serves as Director of Digital Humanities. Her research focuses on 19th-century British literature, Caribbean studies, archival theory, and digital humanities. She leads the East End Digital Library project, digitizing archival materials from London’s East End and collaborating on a Jamaican Jewish cemeteries archive. Kaufman’s work bridges literary analysis with public humanities, emphasizing interdisciplinary approaches to historical and cultural memory.

Her key publications include English Origins, Jewish Discourse, and the Nineteenth-Century British Novel (2009) and Strangers in the Archive: Literary Evidence and London’s East End (2022). She co-edited Caribbean Jewish Crossings (2019) and Fear, Loathing, and Victorian Xenophobia (2013). Her research explores themes of Jewish identity, colonialism, xenophobia, and the intersection of literature with historical archives.

Kaufman pioneered the Digital Humanities minor at the University of Oregon in 2017, fostering student engagement with digital tools for scholarly research. Her projects often involve collaborative, public-facing initiatives to make historical materials accessible, including interactive maps, podcasts, and data visualizations.

Her academic service includes advising on grants and interdisciplinary research strategies. She has been recognized for integrating digital methods into humanities scholarship, emphasizing ethical archiving and transnational cultural studies.