Liisa Steinby (until 2007 Liisa Saariluoma), Professor emerita of Comparative Literature PhD, University of Joensuu (Finland) in 1985. Professor of Literature at the University of Oulu (Finland) 1991–1993, Professor of Comparative Literature (Chair) at the University of Turku 1994–2018. Research periods in Germany, United Kingdom and the USA. The founder and the first director of The Finnish Graduate School of Literary Studies (1999–2002). The Vice-president of International Herder Society 2015–2016 and the President 2017–2018. Member of The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters.

Research interests: history and theory of the novel; modernity and the modern individual in literature; the mythic form of thought in literature; philosophy and literature; the epistemic, conceptual and contextual preconditions of literary historiography and scholarship.