andrew d. kaufman

Crime and Enlightenment

Students in the jail literature class where Crime and Enlightenment began, with Andrew D. Kaufman, 2023

Where Literature Meets Real Life - and the Stakes Are Human

What happens when you teach Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment inside a jail to men awaiting sentencing for violent crimes? What happens when you return and teach it again, this time to the prosecutors handling their cases?

The Crime and Enlightenment® project grew out of those literature classes and now includes classes, keynotes, workshops, and community conversations.


The project explores questions of guilt and grace, justice and mercy, and what it takes to stay human by seeing one another fully, even in the hardest places.


This project began in a jail classroom. But it didn't stay there.

From a Jail Classroom to a National Conversation

A timeline of transformation through literature, justice, and human connection

This journey didn’t begin as a book, a Substack, or a public keynote.

 It began around a plastic table in a jail classroom—and grew into a national conversation about justice, human dignity, and the power of story. What follows is the unfolding of that journey.

2009
First Jail Teaching Experience

Andrew is invited to teach a literature workshop at the Virginia Beach Correctional Center, a single experience that inspired the vision for a deeper, ongoing program.

2010
Launch of Books Behind Bars

Andrew creates a new course at the University of Virginia bringing college students into weekly dialogue with incarcerated youth around works of Russian literature.

2013 - 2014
National Recognition Begins

Books Behind Bars is featured in The Washington Post, on NPR, and on Katie Couric’s nationally syndicated talk show. Books Behind Bars sparks national public dialogue around the impact of literature in unconventional classrooms.

2015
International Spotlight

Books Behind Bars is featured on RTR’s Russia 1, the country’s largest national TV network—an extraordinary moment of international visibility for a local classroom project.

2018
Film Premiere and Network Interview

Seats at the Table, a feature-length documentary about Books Behind Bars, premieres at the Virginia Film Festival. Andrew is interviewed on The Today Show.

2020
National PBS Broadcast

Seats at the Table airs nationally on PBS, reaching millions of viewers across 200+ U.S. markets.

2022
Named a “Super Course”

International education expert Ken Bain features Books Behind Bars in Super Courses, calling it “one of the most brilliant and highly effective examples of service learning I’ve encountered.”

2023
Crime and Enlightenment Project Begins

Andrew teaches Crime and Punishment inside a jail—and again to a group of prosecutors, some handling the jail students’ cases. This becomes the foundation of the Crime and Enlightenment project.

2023 - 2024
A New Public Platform

Launch of the Crime and Enlightenment Substack newsletter and the book-in-progress exploring justice, literature, and the human capacity to change.

2025 - present
The Courage to Stay Human

Andrew develops The Courage to Stay Human keynote, weaving together lessons from Dostoyevsky, his jail classrooms, and personal experience. It reframes courage as choosing connection in divided times.

Want to go deeper?