In fall 2022, Kristina Richardson joined the University of Virginia faculty as the John L. Nau III Professor of the History and Principles of Democracy and as professor of history and Middle Eastern and South Asian languages and cultures. Her research focuses on premodern non-elite Arab history, particularly people with disabilities, users of sign language, Romani groups (ghurabā’), craftspeople, and enslaved laborers and entertainers.

She is the author of two monographs: Difference and Disability in the Medieval Islamic World: Blighted Bodies (Edinburgh, 2012) and Roma in the Medieval Islamic Word: Literacy, Culture and Migration (I.B. Tauris, 2022). For this latest book she was awarded the prestigious 2022 Dan David Prize, and the 2023 Monica H. Green Prize for Distinguished Medieval Research.

She is currently writing her third monograph “Black Basra: Race, Labor and Piety in Early Islamic History.” Richardson also serves as an editor for the journal Der Islam. Prior to joining the faculty at UVA, she taught for 14 years at Queens College and the Graduate Center of The City University of New York.