The TRANSFORM Project studies the complex relationships between people and objects and how those relationships can lead to crime.
TRANSFORM doesn’t just focus on criminal acts.
We are interested in legal interactions with objects too.
By learning about the legal and illegal networks that form around antiquities, wildlife, and fossils we hope to better understand why people break the law and to develop better ways to protect these objects.

Yates speaking at the“The Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts” conference
Dr Donna Yates will give a talk at “The Cluster of Excellence Understanding Written Artefacts” conference taking place from 27 to 29 September 2023 at the University of Hamburg. Yates

Yates will give a keynote at German Anthropological Association Meeting in Munich
Dr Donna Yates will give a keynote at the German Anthropological Association Meeting in Munich for the workshop “Contested Knowledge, Contested Objects: Positioning of Mesoamerican Studies Regarding the History of

Diāna Bērziņa will present her current research on affective atmosphere in art fairs at ‘White-collar and organisational crime: New ideas, directions, and perspectives’ workshop, taking place in Manchester on 6-7

Dr Donna Yates will be one of the panellists at the webinar on money laundering and terrorist financing in the art and antiquities market organised by the FATF. The webinar

Dr Donna Yates will give a keynote address titled “T. Rex is Fierce, T. Rex is Charismatic, T. Rex is Litigious: Desire and Disruptive Objects in Affective Lawscapes” at Law

Machine-learning method to dig deeper into antiquities trafficking
Professor Shawn Graham and his team worked alongside Dr Donna Yates to design a machine-learning model that helps researchers to uncover previously unknown possible connections by using known, established facts
Yates, Donna and Neil Brodie (2023) The illicit trade in antiquities is not the world’s third-largest illicit trade: a critical evaluation of a factoid. Antiquity, First View: 1–13.
Affective Atmosphere in an Art Fair Jewel Heist
Yates, Donna and Diāna Bērziņa (2023) Affective Atmosphere in an Art Fair Jewel Heist. European Journal on Criminal Policy and Research.
Graham, Shawn, Donna Yates and Donna Yates (2023) Investigating antiquities trafficking with generative pre-trained transformer (GPT)-3 enabled knowledge graphs: A case study [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review].Open Res
Relationship Prediction in a Knowledge Graph Embedding Model of the Illicit Antiquities Trade
Graham, Shawn, Donna Yates, Ahmed El-Roby,Chantal Brousseau, Jonah Ellens and Callum McDermott (2023) Relationship Prediction in a Knowledge Graph Embedding Model of the Illicit Antiquities Trade. Advances in Archaeological Practice,
Criminological Frameworks for Understanding Mexican Antiquities in Contemporary European Auctions
Yates, Donna and Diāna Bērziņa (2022) Criminological Frameworks for Understanding Mexican Antiquities in Contemporary European Auctions. In: EL EXPOLIO DE BIENES CULTURALES, L. Pérez-Prat Durbán, and Z. Ruiz (eds). Huelva:
Money Laundering and Antiquities
Brodie, Neil and Donna Yates (2022) Money Laundering and Antiquities.Transfer,1:97-109.
