Gabriel's current research focuses on how  snake cults of the eastern Mediterranean have informed and influenced religious narratives and visual representation of snakes as loci of power in Near Eastern, South Asian and North African ritual. Although working primarily with Christian response to popular snake cults of late antiquity and early modern period, Gabriel also writes on the Bronze age ritual traditions which inspire the latter.

His thesis, under the supervision of Dr. Emma Anderson, examines the representation and devotional influence of the sacred snake in the configuration of the ethnic and religious identity of Marsican Catholics through an examination of the ancient indigenous Greco-Italic ritual substrate recalled in the ritual and material culture associated with the cult of San Domenico di Foligno, patron saint of Cocullo, Italy.

Gabriel additionally works on issues of indigenous representation and religious visual culture through the National Gallery of Canada where he is employed as an Exhibition Coordinator, and through the University of Ottawa InterCulture Center where he is a Research Associate.