Rafail recently completed his undergraduate degree at Princeton in classical studies and ancient history and already has an undergraduate certificate in Italian literature and history. A multi-lingual scholar, he has acted as peer reviewer for the Princeton Research Journal and Editor-in-Chief of the Princeton Studies in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages during his time at Princeton.
His academic interests centre on the operations of ancient states, particularly the Ptolemaic kingdom and the later Roman Empire. His principal interest lies in the methodological prisms through which we can understand the building of multi-cultural societies that do not break apart