About

Brett Sanford Kaufman is an Associate Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with appointments in Classics, Anthropology, the Materials Research Lab, the School of Art and Design, and the Center for East Asian and Pacific Studies. His research focuses on the peoples, states, and empires of the Middle East and North Africa from the Bronze Age to the present. Kaufman integrates archaeological evidence with historical texts and Semitic inscriptions, ranging from the Old Testament to Greek and Roman classics and Viking sources, to provide insights into Israel and Judaism, the Phoenicians and Carthage, and contemporary Middle East geopolitics and policy. A recent emphasis of his work is on the evolution of democracy and the influence of ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern governmental heritage on the United States, a topic explored in his forthcoming book, "The Other Democracy: Phoenicia, Carthage, and Popular Government in the Pre-Classical Mediterranean," to be published by Oxford University Press. As a field archaeologist, Kaufman has directed or supervised excavations in Tunisia, China, Italy, Israel, and New York. He specializes in engineering and design, with a particular interest in technological innovation and the cultural factors that shape it. As an archaeometallurgist, he applies materials science methods to study metal artifacts and ancient industry, demonstrating, for example, that the adoption of bronze was partly due to its fuel efficiency. He has developed archaeological models to track urban collapse and views archaeology as a valuable tool for understanding long-term human-environment interactions and resource management. Additionally, Kaufman works in community-centered engineering, developing ethnographic methods to help engineers better connect with and understand the communities they serve, including the Kenyan Maasai and the Navajo Nation in Arizona. Kaufman is deeply committed to preserving the integrity of the classroom and advocates for academic freedom that prioritizes education over indoctrination. He actively confronts challenges to American higher education and Western liberal democratic values through his research and advocacy. His academic background includes a BA from Brandeis University and an MA and PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Before joining UIUC, he held a postdoctoral fellowship at Brown University and a faculty position at the University of Science and Technology Beijing. He also serves as the Managing Editor of the journal Advances in Archaeomaterials.

Research topics

• Archaeology
• History
• Geography
• Biology
• Art
• Paleontology
• Ecology
• Earth science
• Geology

Selected publications

• Additional file 1 of Microbial lung-to-blood translocation associates with systemic inflammation in severe pneumonia: evidence from paired plasma and lower respiratory tract metagenomics

  Open MIND · 2026-01-01

  article

  Additional file1 (DOCX 4179 kb)

  DOI

• Microbial lung-to-blood translocation associates with systemic inflammation in severe pneumonia: evidence from paired plasma and lower respiratory tract metagenomics

  Intensive Care Medicine Experimental · 2026-02-03

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: Biological heterogeneity in host inflammatory responses to severe pneumonia predicts clinical outcomes and may influence the effectiveness of immunomodulatory therapy. The upstream drivers of this heterogeneity remain poorly defined. We hypothesized that microbial translocation from the lungs to the bloodstream, detectable via multi-compartment metagenomic analysis, contributes to divergent host responses in pneumonia. METHODS: In this nested case-control study of mechanically ventilated patients with severe pneumonia, we collected paired plasma and endotracheal aspirate samples at baseline. Plasma samples underwent microbial cell-free DNA (mcfDNA) sequencing, and endotracheal aspirates were analyzed by Nanopore metagenomic sequencing. Host-response biomarkers were measured in both plasma and endotracheal aspirate samples. Microbial translocation of pulmonary origin was defined by the genus-level concordance of detectable taxa between matched endotracheal aspirate and plasma samples. RESULTS: Among 98 patients (76 pneumonia, 22 controls), plasma mcfDNA was markedly higher in microbiologically confirmed pneumonia compared with culture-negative pneumonia (median 4015 vs. 210 molecules/μL, p = 0.0006). Pulmonary microbial translocation was identified in 31 (41%) pneumonia patients and correlated significantly with plasma soluble ST2 levels, independent of clinical severity. Patients classified into the prognostically adverse hyperinflammatory subphenotype exhibited greater translocating microbial DNA levels compared to hypoinflammatory patients (p = 0.04), further linking translocation to host-response heterogeneity. CONCLUSIONS: Microbial lung-to-blood translocation is a measurable biological process associated with systemic inflammatory heterogeneity in severe pneumonia. This pathway may represent a novel mechanistic target for precision therapeutic strategies aimed at mitigating immune dysregulation.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Additional file 1 of Microbial lung-to-blood translocation associates with systemic inflammation in severe pneumonia: evidence from paired plasma and lower respiratory tract metagenomics

  Figshare · 2026-01-01

  articleOpen access

  Additional file1 (DOCX 4179 kb)

  PublisherDOI

• List of Tables

  2025-11-28

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Imaging the Photochemistry of Cyclobutanone using Ultrafast Electron Diffraction: Experimental Results

  ArXiv.org · 2025-02-19 · 1 citations

  preprintOpen access

  We investigated the ultrafast structural dynamics of cyclobutanone following photoexcitation at $λ=200$ nm using gas-phase megaelectronvolt ultrafast electron diffraction. Our investigation complements the simulation studies of the same process within this special issue. It provides information about both electronic state population and structural dynamics through well-separable inelastic and elastic electron scattering signatures. We observe the depopulation of the photoexcited S$_2$ state of cyclobutanone with n3s Rydberg character through its inelastic electron scattering signature with a time constant of $(0.29 \pm 0.2)$ ps towards the S$_1$ state. The S$_1$ state population undergoes ring-opening via a Norrish Type-I reaction, likely while passing through a conical intersection with S$_0$. The corresponding structural changes can be tracked by elastic electron scattering signatures. These changes appear with a delay of $(0.14 \pm 0.05)$ ps with respect the initial photoexcitation, which is less than the S$_2$ depopulation time constant. This behavior provides evidence for the ballistic nature of the ring-opening once the S$_1$ state is reached. The resulting biradical species react further within $(1.2 \pm 0.2)$ ps via two rival fragmentation channels yielding ketene and ethylene, or propene and carbon monoxide. Our study showcases both the value of gas-phase ultrafast diffraction studies as an experimental benchmark for nonadiabatic dynamics simulation methods and the limits in the interpretation of such experimental data without comparison to such simulations.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Phoenician Democracy and “The Great Judiciary of Carthage”

  2025-11-28

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract With time and place secured, the particular features of Phoenician democracy are explored. From their unique approach to diplomacy with indigenous peoples, to their concepts of equality, to the ideal of social mobility and common welfare that was fundamental to Phoenician leadership, around 800 years of Phoenician government ultimately resulted in the democratic constitution of Carthage. This document was clearly one of the most powerful bodies of law written in antiquity, held as remarkable by its Greek and Roman contemporaries. But how do we know it is remarkable? Outside of very few Punic legal texts, what was surely a rich Punic archive has not survived. Therefore, no coherent Phoenician voice speaks to us of the specifics of their legal traditions. However, the spirit of the constitutional tradition, along with an immense number of specific legal powers and customs, is preserved through classical authors such as Aristotle, Polybius, Livy, Appian, and several others. By synthesizing in one place any historical reference that can be linked to a constitutionally recognized body or branch of Carthaginian government, including the competition between them, the actions they took, the limits on their powers, and the consequences of breaching those limits, a coherent story of the “other” imperial democracy clearly emerges. The final section focuses on Hannibal and the Barcid dynasty to situate their strategies and decision-making as distinctly Phoenician.

  PublisherDOI

• Phoenicia, Carthage, and Popular Government in the Pre-Classical Mediterranean

  2025-11-28 · 1 citations

  book1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract From Aristotle to John Adams, great minds of government have revered Carthaginian democracy as the purest expression of a people’s will. Yet today, while Phoenician influence on the Graeco-Roman worlds has been revisited and corrected from the perspectives of art, architecture, industry, crafts, and writing systems, the spheres of government in general and constitutional democracy in particular are still largely, and incorrectly, considered to be purely within the preserve of ancient Greece or Athens. This book is the first comprehensive treatment of Phoenician government, drawing on archaeological, epigraphic, and historical sources. The Phoenicians introduced a brand of state-level society that enfranchised not only men but also women, children, and even slaves into the popular assembly. Phoenician governmental leaders fostered a foreign and domestic policy that emphasized development, political stability, and economic growth insured by mutual incentives, as well as shared ritual practice, marriage alliances, social mobility, and concern for commoners, at home and abroad. This sustainable form of global leadership lasted for around eight centuries (~1000–146 bc). This work in no way attempts to diminish the exceptional Athenian democracy and its subsequent positive effects on political history and the peoples who have benefited from its legacy. Rather, this work amplifies ancient Greek democracy to help us better understand its origins, as well as expanding democratic heritage. In turn, it serves as an historical corrective that recenters democracy as a conversation and a competition between peoples as opposed to a monolithic institution. It highlights an alternative model of imperial democracy.

  PublisherDOI

• List of Maps

  2025-11-28

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Conclusions

  2025-11-28

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract The Conclusions chapter offers the reader a condensed narrative of all the major takeaways and themes of the whole book. It ties together the Phoenicians in their regional context, the evolution of democracy and other governmental forms at Carthage and other Phoenician colonies, and the ways Phoenicians interacted with Greeks, Romans, and other indigenous peoples of Europe and North Africa. Finally, it offers some thoughts on what such a study of ancient democracies means for the challenges facing our own modern Western liberal democracy.

  PublisherDOI

• List of Translated Complete Phoenician and Punic Inscriptions in the Appendix

  2025-11-28

  other1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Ali Drine

  7 shared

• Hans Barnard

  6 shared

• Pauline Sebillaud

  Jilin University

  5 shared

• Christian Fischer

  4 shared

• Ji Zhang

  Shanxi Agricultural University

  4 shared

• Elyssa Jerray

  4 shared

• Sami Ben Tahar

  4 shared

• Fethi Chelbi

  National Heritage Institute

  3 shared

Awards & honors

• Helen Corley Petit Scholar (2025-2026)
• Lincoln Excellence Assistant Professor (2022-2024)