Upson-Saia was awarded her PhD from Duke University in 2006. Her doctoral thesis was entitled Making An Appearance: Sexual Renunciation and Gender Revision in the Attire of Early Christian Female Ascetics.[2] Her doctoral project was supervised by Elizabeth A. Clark.
Upson-Saia published two books on dress studies, a monograph, Early Christian Dress: Gender, Virtue and Authority (Routledge, 2011) and an edited volume, Dressing Judeans and Christians in Antiquity (Routledge, 2014).
She has also published a book on the history of pre-modern medicine, Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean (University of California Press, 2023).
With Heidi Marx at the University of Manitoba, Upson-Saia founded and co-directs the international working group, composed of over 300 scholarly members, on Religion, Medicine, Disability, and Health in late antiquity, ReMeDHe.[3]
In 2008, Upson-Saia's article "Caught in a Compromising Position: The Biblical Exegesis and Characterization of Biblical Protagonists in the Syriac Dialogue Hymns" was awarded the Best First Article Prize from the North American Patristics Society.[4]
In 2011, Upson-Saia was awarded the Donald R. Loftsgordon Memorial Award for Outstanding Teaching, and in 2012, Upson-Saia won the Linda and Tod White Teaching Prize.[1]
In 2021, Upson-Saia was awarded the David B. and Mary H. Gamble Professorship at Occidental College.[5]
In 2022, Upson-Saia led efforts to procure a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation to fund Occidental College’s Humanities for Just Communities curriculum.[6][7]
Upson-Saia was an expert contributor on Greg Jenner's BBC Radio 4 programme, 'You're Dead To Me', with comedian Stu Goldsmith. They discussed Greek and Roman Medicine.[8]
Upson-Saia has also written about medical views on pregnancy for Nursing Clio,[9] dress at the Met Gala for Hyperallergic,[10] ancient sexual ethics with the Huffington Post.[11]
Early Christian Dress: Gender, Virtue and Authority (London: Routledge, 2011)
Dressing Judeans and Christians in Antiquity (London: Routledge, 2014).
Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean (500 BCE–600 CE) A Sourcebook, by Kristi Upson-Saia, Heidi Marx, and Jared Secord (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2023)[12]
