Sara Danius

Sara Maria Danius
Danius in 2017
Born
Sara Maria Danius

(1962-04-05)5 April 1962
Täby, Sweden
Died12 October 2019(2019-10-12) (aged 57)
Stockholm, Sweden
Spouse
Stefan Jonsson
(m. 19892010)
Children1
Education
Alma materUppsala University
Duke University
University of Nottingham
Stockholm University
ThesisThe Senses of Modernism: Technology, Perception and Modernist Aesthetics (1997)
Doctoral advisorFredric Jameson
Philosophical work
InstitutionsSwedish Academy
Södertörn University
Uppsala University
Stockholm University
Member of the Swedish Academy
(Seat No. 7)
In office
20 December 2013  26 February 2019
Preceded byKnut Ahnlund
Succeeded byÅsa Wikforss
Permanent Secretary
of the Swedish Academy
In office
May 2015  April 2018
Preceded byPeter Englund
Succeeded byAnders Olsson

Sara Maria Danius (5 April 1962 – 12 October 2019) was a Swedish literary critic and philosopher, and a scholar of literature and aesthetics. Danius was professor of aesthetics at Södertörn University, docent of literature at Uppsala University and professor in literary science at Stockholm University.

Danius was a member of the Swedish Academy and its first female permanent secretary. She was one of the central figures in the 2018 controversies resulting in the cancellation of the Nobel Prize in Literature that year and the following restructuring of the academy.