Lorraine Abagatnan

Lorraine received her BA in Classics with a Minor in Anthropology at the University of Washington. In her senior honors thesis, she focused on the role of food-related objects in cultural exchange between Greeks, Romans, and Trans-Jordanian peoples during the late Hellenistic and early Roman Empire in the city of Gerasa (now Jerash, Jordan). Lorraine now studies Sicily during the Late Roman period, and focuses specifically on people's domestic spaces and daily life. Her dissertation centers on elite power and identity formation, and how these notions changed towards the end of the Roman Empire. Her research interests broadly cover social and religious history, domestic space, and transformations during Late Antiquity.

Lorraine has participated in the Balu’a Regional Archaeology Project in Jordan, (2019), the Issei at Barneston Project in Washington State (2020), and U-M's Notion project (2023–2025). She also has experience working in cultural resource management and archaeological consultation through her work with Cultural Resource Consultants in Seattle, Washington.