Saana Svärd holds the title of a docent of Assyriology in the University of Helsinki. She has written extensively on the topic of women and gender in the first millennium BCE Mesopotamia, including a monograph: Women and Power in Neo-Assyrian Palaces (2015). In addition to gender, her research interests relate lexical semantics and continuity/change from first millennium Mesopotamia to later historical periods. Currently, she is working as the principal investigator of the three-year project "Construction of Gender in Mesopotamia from 934 to 330 BCE" (funded by the Academy of Finland). She is also the Chair of the Finnish Oriental Society.