In the realm of Buddhist Studies, Kristopher Kersey's research scrunitizes visual and material artifacts, with a primary focus on the sutras, sculptures, and perceptual philosophies of the late Heian period. He is also interested in the modern reception, appropriation, misunderstanding, and manipulation of Japanese Buddhisms from the nineteenth century to the present. His first book Facing Images: Medieval Japanese Art and the Problem of Modernity (Penn State University Press, 2024) addressed the so-called Eyeless Sutras (ca. 1192), the semiotic theories of Kūkai, reliquaries, and the physiology of vision revealed in the Shingon Ajikan “visualization” ritual. The book was awarded the 2025 Monica H. Green Prize for Distinguished Medieval Research (Medieval Academy of America) and was the runner-up for the 2025 Modernist Studies Association First Book Prize. Shorter articles have addressed overlay in manuscripts, text-and-image relationships, mortuary memory, and the notion of impermanence.