Rachel Patt

Rachel Patt is an Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Notre Dame, specializing in ancient Mediterranean and Late Antique art. Her research explores portraiture, materiality, and the historiographic implications of art in technologizing societies. She holds a Ph.D. from Emory University, an M.A. from The Courtauld Institute of Art, and a B.A. from Stanford University.

Her first book project, Intimate Encounters, reinterprets Roman portraiture through the concept of pothos, examining how private images challenge scholarly binaries. Her second project, Vanquished Nature, investigates the ecological and ethical dimensions of Roman luxury production. Both works emphasize art's role in shaping identity and its connections to environmental and social systems.

Patt has held postdoctoral fellowships at Princeton University’s Seeger Center and conducted research at institutions like the National Gallery of Art. She contributes to museum exhibitions and critiques cultural property curation. Her scholarship has appeared in American Journal of Archaeology and The Art Bulletin.