Until 2008 I was a Professor of Comparative Literature at Stockholm University, Sweden. Since September 1, 2008 I am a Professor of Education at the University of Cambridge, which is about the highest an academic can get.

I am also an Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Åbo Akademi University, Finland and an Honorary Professor at the University of Worcester, UK.

At Stockholm University I used to teach children's literature and literary theory, and occasionally some other courses.

The teaching system at Cambridge is comletely different, which means that I do not teach whole courses, but am part of a teaching team. I have also ample time for research. I am the Chair of the academic group PLACE within the Faculty, which means a lot of responsibility for other people and more meetings than I want.

My doctoral dissertation was about 20th-century English-language fantasy for children, from a structuralist perspective. It is published as The Magic Code. It feels a bit outdated, but I hear that many people still use it, which makes me pleased.

In 1993 I had a Fulbright Grant at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Among my other academic honors is a Fellowship at the International Youth Library in Munich and H. W. Donner Visiting Chair at Åbo Akademi, where I was involved in the research project  ChiLPA ("Children's Literature: Pure and Applied"). In 2006 I was also made Honorary Professor at the University of Worcester, UK.

However, the crown of my success is the International Brothers Grimm Award 2005 from the Osaka Institute for Children's Literature, given for a life-time achievement in children's literature research. 

In 1993-97 I was President of the International Research Society for Children's Literature (IRSCL). This is a society dedicated to scholarly research in the field of children's literature, and it has 300 members in 40 countries. I am still very much involved in international scholarly cooperation; for instance, in 1998-2000 and 2002-2005 I was a member of the International Committee of the Children's Literature Association. In 2002-2206 I was also involved in international cooperation closer at home, as a coordinator for the Nordic Network for Children's Literature Research.

My most recent scholarly publication is Power,voice and and subjectivity in lterature for young readers, published in 2009. Please have a look at a selected bibliography of my published works. I also have a subject index to my work where you can see what authors, titled and topics I have written about. I used to review children's books and scholarly studies of children's literature in the Swedish professional journal Opsis Kalopsis. Today I am a member of the editorial board of several scholarly journals: the Swedish Barnboken, the international Bookbird, CREArtA,Papers, and Marvels & Tales. For several years I was the editor of the international research column in Children's Literature Association Quarterly.

In 2001-2002 I was on the jury of the August Prize, the Swedish National Book Award, in the children's and juvenile book category. 

In 2003-2008 I also served on the  jury of the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award for Literature (ALMA), a prize that will hopefully compete with the Nobel Prize in prestige and is given for the outstanding life-time authorship in children's literature or a reading-promoting activitity. The first award was given in 2003, to Maurice Sendak (USA) and Christine Nöstlinger (Austria). To learn more about the Award, visit its homepage.

My other area of specialization used to be the famous Swedish writer Selma Lagerlöf. I have written a book about the reception of Selma Lagerlöf's works in Russia, and another more general study about the reception of Swedish literature in Russia, using the semiotic theory of culture. I was a Board member of the Swedish Selma Lagerlöf Society between 1988 and 2003, and I have a medal from the Society for faithful service. I am quite proud of it. 

I have also written two young adult novels:  Nedräkningen (1993, "Final Countedown"), translated into Danish and Lithuanian, and Det finns inga kungar (1994, "There is no such thing as a king"); and two picturebooks, illustrated by Vladimir Galatsky: Var är solen? (1987, "Where is the sun?") and Vem sa det först? (1989, "Who said it first?"). However, my bestselling book is Masjas ryska kokbok (1987, "Masha's Russian Cook Book"). I have also written a book about computers, but it was all the way back in the Stone Age (1989), so it isn't worth much today. My advice to everybody: don't write computer books, they get outdated; write cook books, they are eternal.

My most recent non-scholarly publication is a book of memoirs, Om hur ("How to", 2010) where I desribe my growing up under the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union. It is so new that I don't know yet whether it is a success or a failure.

I have been a visiting lecturer all over the world: Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and South Africa. I really enjoy it. You can have a look at some topics I can offer. 

I have had the pleasure of collaborating with some colleagues on the multi-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Children's Literature(2006). I have written some entries myself, and I was area editor for the whole continental Europe, beside some special topics - what a responsibility! I just love it. (You will have noticed by now that I really love my work). Another encyclopedic project I have been involved in is the Greenwood Encyclopedia of Folktales, edited by Donald Haase. 

I am married to Staffan Skott, who is a Swedish writer and journalist. We have five children and ten grandchildren.

My current hobbies are gardening, pottery, papermaking and building dollhouses and room boxes (see my hobby page), and I also enjoy cooking and eating a good meal. Believe it or not, but I do read for pleasure sometimes. My favorite book is Winnie-the-Pooh. Recently, I have been re-reading classics, such as Thomas Mann's The Magic Mountain, Cervantes's Don Quixote and Melville's Moby-Dick. They are now quite diferent from what I remembered from my youth. It is an illusion that we know a book after one reading. If you re interested in what I have read and what am reading and what I think of t, visit my virtual bookshelf.

If you do not find this information sufficient, you can read about me in Something about the Author, volume 127 (Gale, 2002), pp. 161-165. 

For my full academic CV please click here.