MaryKate's research focuses on the history of the art market and collecting, provenance research and cultural property issues in the Nazi era. Her dissertation, supported by the Andrew Grant Scholarship, examines the Galerie Paul Rosenberg Paris and transnational private and institutional collecting networks of contemporary French art in Britain, Germany and America before 1945.

Having lectured widely on the practice of provenance research and the history of the art market, including at University of Edinburgh, MaryKate was an Adjunct Professor at New York University, where from 2014-2017 she taught the first academic course at a U.S. institution dedicated to provenance research. She has also guest-lectured at The Courtauld Institute, Columbia University, Stanford University, Loyola Law School, Warwick University, Kingston University, University of Zurich, Christie's Education, Sotheby's Institute and the Cleveland Museum of Art.

MaryKate previously held roles at The Museum of Modern Art, the Art Loss Register London, Sotheby’s, Artnet and the Jewish Museum New York. She holds a BA in German Literature from Catholic University in Washington, D.C. (2006) and was a Fulbright Fellow at the Technische Universität Dresden (2008-2009). MaryKate holds an MA in History of Art with a focus on Modern German Art and Emigré Culture from 1933-1945 from The Courtauld Institute London. She is a member of The International Art Market Studies Association (TIAMSA). 

At Edinburgh College of Art, MaryKate is co-organiser with Professor Frances Fowle of the Research Cluster on Collecting and the Art Market. Her research has most recently received the generous support of the German Center for Art History, Paris.