Sarah Umer is an associate professor at the College of Art and Design, University of the Punjab, Lahore. Previously, she taught at Lahore College for Women. She earned her PhD in 2016, focusing on the religious beliefs of the Indus Valley people, a largely unexplored topic. Her research includes art, ancient civilizations, and religions, especially in South Asia, and she has authored a book on the Indus Valley. Umer has held fellowships at SOAS as a Charles Wallace Fellow and at Harvard as a Fulbright fellow, where she investigated Harappan religious influences on Hinduism and linkages with the Greater Arab world. She also organizes national and international seminars and workshops to promote Pakistani art and is the recipient of the CAA-Getty International Program travel grant in 2018.