Liisa Laakso is a senior researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute. She has previously served as Rector of the University of Tampere and Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Helsinki. In 2004, she was appointed a professor at the University of Jyväskylä in Development and International Cooperation. Laakso has actively contributed to discussions on Nordic-South relations and currently chairs the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Finnish Academies. She also served as Chair of Finnish Development NGOs Fingo from 2020 to 2023. Her research focuses on academic freedom in Africa, democratization, elections, and EU development cooperation policies.