Abigail Fixel graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University in 2026 with a B.A. in Anthropology (Archaeology)-Jewish Studies and Theatre. Prior to receiving a Fulbright award, she completed two senior theses. Her Archaeology-Jewish Studies thesis, Staging Absence: An Ancient Jewish Play's Archaeological Imagination of the Jewish Hellenistic Past and Present explored the challenges of reconstructing ancient Jewish identity in the present, and proposed new approaches to understanding Hellenistic Judaism in the field of Jewish Studies and in the archaeological record through the Exagoge, a second-century BCE Jewish tragedy by Ezekiel. Shortly after graduation, she presented this research at the Theoretical Archaeology Group (TAG) conference. Her theatre thesis consisted of two original works: directing a production of The Insanity of Mary Girard and a paper entitled The Madwoman which explored representations of female insanity on the stage. In recognition of her body of undergraduate work at Columbia University, she received the Dasha Amsterdam Epstein Award for Directing.

As a Fulbright fellow, Abigail will work closely under the supervision of Dr. Michael Eisenberg at the Hippos-Sussita excavation in northern Israel. Her research will focus on contextualizing finds from Classical-period theaters, an area of study that has received relatively little scholarly attention.