Crosby has held academic positions at the universities of Edinburgh, Lancaster, Cardiff, SOAS London, and King’s College London, and has held visiting professorships in Canada, Taiwan, South Korea, and Cambodia. She currently leads the Numata Professorship at Oxford, teaching Buddhist Studies, Pāli, and Buddhist Sanskrit. She also co-edits the international peer-reviewed journal
Contemporary Buddhism. Her research spans textual analysis, Theravāda history, meditation traditions, ethics, and intersections with humanitarian law. Crosby is known for her work on diverse aspects of Theravāda practice, particularly pre-modern and esoteric meditation traditions. Crosby’s scholarship has highlighted the historical presence of
Southern Esoteric Buddhism, pre-modern esoteric meditation traditions across Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka, integrating visualization and somatic techniques within the framework of
Theravāda Abhidhamma. She attributes their decline in part to colonial modernist influences, shifting temple authority, and war. ==Selected works==