Jessica Andruss

Jessica Andruss serves as an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia, having joined the institution in 2016 as an Assistant Professor and Mellon Fellow at the Institute for Humanities and Global Cultures. She was promoted to her current rank in 2024.

Her research investigates the intersections of Jewish and Muslim intellectual and cultural history within the medieval Islamic world, with a focus on Arabic texts authored by Jewish scholars—particularly translations and commentaries on the Hebrew Bible. She examines how these scholars developed religious vocabulary and exegetical frameworks through engagement with rabbinic traditions and Islamic intellectual culture. Her teaching encompasses courses on Jewish intellectual history in Islamic contexts, Jewish-Muslim relations, and the historical evolution of Jerusalem.

• Mellon Fellow, Institute for Humanities and Global Cultures (2016)