Trained in Indian and Western Asiatic archaeology, Shereen Ratnagar is the author of books and academic papers on the Indus civilization: its overseas trade, political organization, cities, and its decline, as well as studies on pastoralism and urbanism. Her interest in the conceptualization of the early state, of non-stratified tribal socieities, and of the limits and potentials of non-market economies, has coloured much of her work. She has also made interventions concerning the political abuse of archaeology.