Kate Franklin is a doctoral candidate at the University of Chicago, and has been with Project ArAGATS since 2008, when she excavated in the eastern terrace of Gegharot fortress. Kate's dissertation research focuses on trade and political economy in the Armenian highlands during the late medieval period. Between the Arab conquest and the Mongol invasions, the foothills of Aragats were studded with caravanserais which housed merchants traveling on a key branch of the Silk Road. Kate is undertaking archaeological survey in the Kasakh river valley south of Aparan to examine the role of this long- distance trade in the turbulent politics of an intriguing era in the highlands' history.
Kate holds a M.Phil. degree in Archaeology from Cambridge University and a bachelor's degree in Archaeological Studies from Yale University.