Rachael Banes, BA MA PhD

Rachael is interested in the epigraphy and wider visual culture of the ancient and medieval Mediterranean. Her past work has focused on graffiti, and the placement, distribution, and content of informal inscriptions, in order to reconstruct the behaviours and experiences of past communities.

Rachael completed her PhD at the University of Birmingham in 2023, titled: "Scratch That: A Comparative Approach to Graffiti in the Late Antique Eastern Mediterranean", for which she received the Rodney Hilton Prize in Medieval Studies. Between 2021 and 2025 Rachael was a team member on "Epigraphies of Pious Travel", an FWF project examining graffiti associated with pilgrimage in the Byzantine Sphere. As a member of the team, Rachael was responsible for collecting, editing and publishing the Greek graffiti.