Jason B. Kauffman ’05

Jason is a Ph.D. student in Latin American history and environmental history at the University of North Carolina, where he is studying the social and environmental history of the Pantanal, the world’s largest freshwater wetland (straddling Brazil, Bolivia, and Paraguay), recognized as one of the most ecologically diverse places in the world.  After graduating from GC, Jason married and spent a year in Goshen, then earned a master’s degree at the University of New Mexico.

Jason, his wife Lisa Graber (a GC nursing alum), and their son Eli (b. 2011) live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina.

“Goshen’s history faculty took a personal interest in my development as an historian. They teach from a Christian perspective. I took this for granted when I was an undergraduate, but graduate school has shown me that not all historians value this perspective.

“My graduate research builds on interests that I first developed as a student at Goshen. I have always been interested in both history and the environmental sciences, and a Goshen course on environmental history introduced me to the ways historians are integrating those things. Now, besides conducting traditional archival research, I get to study things like wetlands ecology and then use this knowledge to better understand how humans have interacted with their environment over time.”