Since 1996 I have been a professor of Comparative Literature at Lund University. My research interests comprise pre-20th century women’s literature, primarily in the form of autobiographies and letters, the work of Swedish author Birger Sjöberg and performance aspects of literature. The theoretical approaches I have adopted include Bakhtin’s dialogic theory, Tynyanov’s theory of literary development as a phenomenon immanent to literature, and performance theory as developed in German literature and drama research.I have recently concluded two projects,one on Birger Sjöberg’s poetry collection Kriser och kransar (1926)in The Road to Kriser och kransar: Parodic devices and images of pulsion in Birger Sjöberg, and another one on women's letters-in Women's language. An Analysis of Style and Expression in Letters before 1800(2012).Presently I am doing research on the letters of Queen Christina of Sweden,and I am planning a project on the performativity in Swedish Literature 1800-1980.

Research

Research portal (Lund University)

Other tasks and qualifications

1983–1990 researcher on the project Women’s autobiographies and diaries in Sweden (funded by Riksbankens Jubileumsfond)
1986 PhD degree
1986–1990 Lecturer in Swedish at the Department of Nordic Philology, University of Copenhagen
1986–1993 co-edited volume 1 of Nordisk kvinnolitteraturhistoria [History of scandinavian women’s literature] with Anne Marie Mai
As of 1993 a member of Kungliga Vetenskapssocieteten, Lund
1991–1995 research fellow, Communication Studies, Linköping University
1997–2000 head of the Department of Comparative Literature, Lund University
As of 1997 a member of Kungliga Humanistiska Vetenskapssamfundet, Lund
1999–2001 member of the Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences, chair of the drafting committee for aesthetical subjects
1999 – 2000 together with doc. Ellen Vinge evaluation of The Scholarship for younger female PhD:s 1996 – 1998 granted by Knut and Alice Wallenberg’s foundation.
As of 1999 a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities
As of 1999 member of the Royal Society for editing manuscripts concerning the history of Scandinavia
2002–2008 project director of the research project Kvinnors brev [Women’s letters] (funded by Riksbankens jubileumsfond)
2002–2006 member of the board of Riksbankens jubileumsfond, chair of the drafting committee for literary studies, linguistics, musicology and art history, and a member of the drafting committee for Kulturvetenskapliga fonden
2003–2006 member of the Government drafting committee for research
2003–2008 member of the research council of the Crafoord foundation
2004–2010 member of the board of the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT)
As of 2005 a member of Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen
As of 2008 member of The Society Pro Fide et Christianismo
As of 2008 member of Svenska fornskriftssällskapet
As of 2009 member of the board of Hans Larssonsamfundet
Listed in AcademiaNet Datenbank exzellenter Wissenschaftlerinnen, Heidelberg: www.academia-net.de
As of 2014 member of the board of Längmanska kulturfonden

Panelist at the research evaluation 2011 at Uppsala University, Quality and Renewal.
Panelist at the research evaluation 2014 at Mälardalens högskola, MER 14, 2014.
2015 together with professor Erland Hjelmquist carried out a pilotstudy of the reserach evaluations at the Swedish universities
2015 panelist at the University Chancellor of Sweden's pilotstudy developing a model for evaluating the ph.d.educationin Sweden.

Awards
1985 The Landberg Prize from Birger Sjöbergsällskapet
1985 Prize from the foundation of The Memory of Ulf Peder Olrog
1986 Prize from Stina och Erik Lundberg's foundation, conferred by The Swedish Academy
1986 Prize from the Royal Academy of Gustavus Adolphus, Uppsala
2003 The Schück Prize, conferred by The Swedish Academy

I have supervised 13 Ph.D-students to their Ph.D-exam:

TK Jonny Karlsson, the year 2000 (Tema kommunikation, Linköping university)with the dissertation Predikans samtal. En studie av lyssnarens roll i predikan hos Gustaf Wingren utifrån Michail Bachtins teori om dialogicitet,
-FK Kerstin Bergman, the year 2003 with the dissertation En möjlig värld. Om ontologier i Lars Gustafssons senare författarskap,
-FK Eivor Persson the year 2003 with the dissertation Det indirekta skrivsättet i C J L Almqvists Jaktslottskrönika
-FM Maria Nilson the year 2003 with the dissertation Att förhålla sig till moderniteten. En studie i Gertrud Liljas författarskap,
-FM Ann Steiner the year 2006 with the dissertation I litteraturens mittfåra.
-FM Jon Helgason, the year 2007 with the dissertation Hjärtats skrifter. En brevkulturs uttryck i korrespondensen mellan Anna Louisa Karsch och Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim,translated 2012 into German: Schriften des Herzens. Briefkultur des 18. Jahrhunderts im Briefwechsel zwischen Anna louisa Karsch und Johann Wilhelm Ludwig Gleim.
-FM Marie Löwendahl the year 2007 with the dissertation Min allrabästa och ömmaste vän! Kvinnors brevskrivning under svenskt 1700-tal,
-FM Jonas Asklund the year 2008 with the dissertation Humor i romantisk text. Om Jean Pauls estetik i svensk romantik: C. F. Dahlgrens Mollbergs epistlar (1820), C. J. L. Almqvists Amorina (1822), och C. Livijns Spader Dame (1825),
-FM Astrid Regnell the year 2009 with the dissertation Att se stjärnor på ljusa dagen. Förvandling och försoning i August Strindbergs En blå bok
-FM Immi Lundin the year 2012 with the dissertation Att föra det egna till torgs. Berättande, stoff och samtid i Kerstin Strandbergs, Enel Melbergs och Eva Adolfssons debutromaner
-FM Miranda Landen the year 2013 with the dissertation Och nu börjar historien: Hjalmar Söderbergs novellkonst.
- FM Alfred Sjödin the year 2014 with the dissertation Landets SångGudinna. Johan Gabriel Oxenstierna och naturdiktens genrer.
FM Peter Henning the year 2015 with the dissertation Minne, jag, 1800. Litterär självframställning hos Atterbom, Geijer, Widerberg och Heidenstam.
-FM Kenneth Lindegren the year 2016 with the dissertation Osannolika händelser och den svenska realistiska romanen. Ett estetiskt och existentiellt bekymmer

Presently supervising 2 PhD-students