Dr. Kristin M. S. Bezio
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Profile
Dr. Kristin M. S. Bezio, professor of leadership studies and associate dean of academic affairs at the Jepson School of Leadership Studies, integrates the study of literature into the leadership studies curriculum. Her areas of specialization include leadership in literature, video games, and film; leadership in performance; and cultural and political history in early modern England (including Shakespeare).
Her teaching and research focus on the ways in which literature, drama, film, and video games have influenced society and the way people think about issues of leadership and followership. Her interests include 16th- and 17th-century literature and spycraft, women’s literature, comparative literature, drama and performance, directing, acting, rhetoric and composition, and new media.
Bezio has received several grants and awards for her teaching and research. As part of the Jepson School’s curriculum, she teaches required courses, such as Leadership and the Humanities and Critical Thinking, and electives, such as Leadership on Stage and Screen. She also supervises independent studies in aerial through the School of Arts & Sciences' Department of Theatre & Dance.
She is the author of "The Eye of the Crown: The Development and Evolution of the Elizabethan Secret Service" and "Staging Power in Tudor and Stuart English History Plays: History, Political Thought, and the Redefinition of Sovereignty." She also is a company member and technical director for Host of Sparrows Aerial Circus.
Bezio also directs Jepson at Cambridge, a summer study-abroad program offered by the Jepson School in collaboration with the University of Richmond School of Law.
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Awards
Winter 2025 Serve Virginia Honor Roll, Serve Virginia Foundation, 2025
Community-Engaged Teaching Award, Bonner Center for Civic Engagement, University of Richmond, 2024
Distinguished Educator Award, University of Richmond, 2017
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Awards
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Selected Publications
Books
Bezio, Kristin M. S. The Eye of the Crown: The Development and Evolution of the Elizabethan Secret Service. Abingdon, Oxon, England: Routledge, 2023.
Bezio, Kristin M. S., and Scott Oldenburg, eds. Religion and the Early Modern British Marketplace. London: Routledge, 2022.
Oldenburg, Scott, and Kristin M. S. Bezio, eds. Religion and the Medieval and Early Modern Global Marketplace. London: Routledge, 2022.
Bezio, Kristin M. S., and Anthony Presti Russell, eds. William Shakespeare and 21st-Century Culture, Politics, and Leadership. New Horizons in Leadership Studies. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2021.
Staging Power in Tudor and Stuart English History Plays: History, Political Thought, and the Redefinition of Sovereignty. Burlington, VT: Asghate, 2015.
Journal Articles“Playing at Being Human: Finding Leadership and Empathy Through Digital Games.” Journal of Leadership Studies: Expanding Interdisciplinary Discourse Special Issue (2024): 1-9. http://doi.org/10.1002/jls.21881
"Single-Player Videogames in Leadeship Learning." New Directions for Student Leadership 2022, no. 174 (Summer 2022): 89-98.
Book Chapters“Making the Invisible Important: Invisible Leadership and the Case of the Babington Plot.” In Case Studies in Political Leadership, edited by George R. Goethals and Scott T. Allison, 164-176. Case Studies in Leadership Series. Cheltenham, U.K., Edward Elgar, 2025.
“A Case Study in Empire: The East India Company.” With Ana Sofia Martinez. In Case Studies in Political Leadership, edited by George R. Goethals and Scott T. Allison, 177-188. Case Studies in Leadership Series. Cheltenham, U.K., Edward Elgar, 2025.
“Crooked Politics: Shakespeare’s Richard III and Leadership in the Twenty-First Century United States.” In The Arts of Leading: Perspectives from the Humanities and Liberal Arts, edited by Edward Brooks and Michael Lamb, 118-151. Washington, D.C., Georgetown University Press, 2024.
“Literature.” The SAGE Encyclopedia of Leadership Studies. Edited by George R. Goethals and Scott T. Allison. SAGE (2023).
"Introduction: Church, Coin, and Custom--Religious Conflict and the Marketplace." In Religion and the Early Modern British Marketplace, Routledge Research in Early Modern History, edited by Kristin M. S. Bezio and Scott Oldenburg, 1-13. New York: Routledge, 2022.
"Markets, Machinations, and Martin Marprelate: The Marketplace of Publication and Espionage Surrounding the Marprelate Controversy." In Religion and the Early Modern British Marketplace, Routledge Research in Early Modern History, edited by Kristin M. S. Bezio and Scott Oldenburg, 149-170. New York: Routledge, 2022.
"'Mountainous Inhumanity': The Politics of Religion, Refugees, and Ego from Sir Thomas More to Donald Trump." In William Shakespeare and 21st-Century Culture, Politics, and Leadership, New Horizons in Leadership Studies, edited by Kristin M. S. Bezio and Anthony Presti Russell, 183-201. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2021.
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In the News
Witch Trials and the Reformation with Dr. Kristin Bezio (Highkey Obsessed Podcast)
Tue., Jun. 10, 2025How video games can teach social values through realistic play (Lifewire)
Thu., Aug. 17, 2023 - Links