KATIE A. PAUL
Katie is an anthropologist and research analyst and an affiliated researcher with The Day After Heritage Protection Initiative (TDA-HPI). She, along with Amr Al-Azm, is also the Co-Director of the ATHAR Project, an investigative study digging into the digital underworld of transnational trafficking, terrorism financing, and organized crime. Her work focuses on the trafficking and destruction of cultural property and its connections to transnational crime and terrorism in the Middle East and North Africa. Katie focuses on the role of social media and new technologies in monitoring and recording trafficking in nations in crisis. Katie believes it’s not enough that only archaeologists work to protect heritage; rather, the world needs ArchaeoActivists: People working across fields and disciplines to combat the trafficking of antiquities by organized criminal networks.
Previously, Katie served as chief of staff and a research fellow at a Washington, DC-based non-profit dedicated to combating cultural racketeering. She holds a bachelor’s degree from Miami University (OH) with a double major in Anthropology and Ancient Greek and earned an M.A. in Anthropology at The George Washington University.
In August 2021, she was named one of Fast Company’s “Most Creative People in Business” for her work in investigating how Facebook amplifies extremism.
Read her published papers:
Facebook’s Black Market in Antiquities: Trafficking, Terrorism and War Crimes
Facebook’s Black Market in Antiquities: ICOM Redlist Artifacts Offered on Facebook
Two Clicks Away: Wildlife Sales on Facebook
Watch her on:
CBS News: Extremists, criminal groups using Facebook to sell ancient Middle East artifacts
