Virginia Richter is Rector of the University of Bern, Professor of Modern English Literature, and a board member of the Marcel Benoist Foundation.

She studied English, Comparative, and German literature at the University of Munich, where she also earned a doctorate in comparative literature and completed her habilitation in English and Comparative Literature. For her transdisciplinary research, she received the Therese von Bayern Prize. Research stays took her, as a visiting fellow, to the Universities of Kent (Canterbury), Leeds, and Edinburgh, and, as a visiting professor, to the Universities of Göttingen and Munich.

Her extensive leadership experience includes serving as Vice-Rector for International Affairs and Academic Careers, Head of the English Department, President of the Institute for Advanced Study (now the Walter Benjamin Kolleg), and as Vice Dean and Dean of the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Bern. She was also President of the University and Society Forum.