Katharyn Hanson

Katharyn Hanson, Ph.D., is a Smithsonian Secretary's Scholar and a Cultural Heritage Preservation Scholar at the Museum Conservation Institute. She works as an archaeologist specializing in the protection of cultural heritage. Dr. Hanson received her doctorate from the University of Chicago with a dissertation entitled: Considerations of Cultural Heritage: Threats to Mesopotamian Archaeological Sites. Previously she held a visiting research position with the Geospatial Technologies Team at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Pennsylvania Museum and MCI. She directs archaeological site preservation training at the Iraqi Institute for the Conservation of Antiquities and Heritage in Erbil, Iraq and serves on the Board of The Academic Research Institute in Iraq (TARII). She has been involved in various archaeological fieldwork projects for over 25 years and has curated museum exhibits and published on damage to ancient sites in Iraq and Syria. Her research combines field archaeology, remote sensing, and cultural heritage protection methodology and policy with on-the-ground action to protect culture.