Sara Danius

Sara Maria Danius (born 5 April 1962 in Täby) is a Swedish scholar of literature and aesthetics. Danius is Professor of Aesthetics at Södertörn University and Docent of Literature at Uppsala University.

Danius graduated from University of Stockholm in 1986. She received her Master of Arts in Critical Theory at the University of Nottingham in 1989. In 1997 she became a Ph.D. at Duke University, and in 1999 she received a Ph.D. degree at Uppsala University. She has published on the relationship between literature and society, and written about Marcel Proust, Gustave Flaubert and James Joyce.

Danius has worked as a literary critic for the Swedish daily newspaper Dagens Nyheter since 1986. She is an executive member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters since 2010.

In March 2013, Danius was elected to be a member of the Swedish Academy, succeeding Knut Ahnlund on chair 7. Danius was formally installed in the academy at a ceremony on 20 December 2013. She took over the post as permanent secretary of the academy from Peter Englund on 1 June 2015.