Heineman has been at the UI since 1999 and teaches courses in Germany, Europe, women, and gender. Her past research has examined gender, war, and memory in Germany; welfare states in comparative perspective (Fascist, Communist, and Democratic); and the significance of marital status for women. Out of this research came a book, What Difference Does a Husband Make: Women and Marital Status in Nazi and Postwar Germany (University of California Press, 1999) and many articles, including "The Hour of Women: Memories of Germany's 'Crisis Years' and West German National Identity," American Historical Review (1996).

With her 2002 article, "Sexuality and Nazism: The Doubly Unspeakable?" (Journal of the History of Sexuality), she began to work more intensely on the history of sexuality. In 2011, she published Before Porn was Legal: The Erotica Empire of Beate Uhse (University of Chicago Press) and The History of Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones: From the Ancient World to the Era of Human Rights (editor, University of Pennsylvania Press). She is also author of the memoir Ghostbelly (Feminist Press, 2014)

Heineman received her PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1993. She is the 2010 recipient of the AICGS/DAAD Prize for Distinguished Scholarship in German and European Studies

Heineman teaches classes on Germany and Europe in the 20th century, the history of gender and sexuality in modern Europe, and western civilization. She also regularly teaches graduate seminars in modern European history.