Jessica Andruss came to the University of Virginia in 2016 as an Assistant Professor of Religious Studies and a Mellon Fellow at the Institute for Humanities and Global Cultures.

She studies the intersections between Jewish and Muslim intellectual and cultural history in the medieval Islamic world. Her research focuses on Arabic texts written by Jews, especially translations and commentaries on the Hebrew Bible. Through this literature, she explores the ways that Jewish scholars crafted a religious vocabulary and exegetical approach through their study of the Bible, their familiarity with rabbinic traditions, and their engagement with Islamic thought and the wider Arabic intellectual culture.

Her interest in the connections between Jewish and Islamic discourse and historical experience also informs her teaching. She offers several courses on Jewish intellectual history in the Islamic world in addition to courses on Jewish-Muslim Relations and the history of Jerusalem.