Liisa Laakso has acted in different national and international positions of trust including the Finnish Government’s Research and Innovation Council. Currently she is chair of the Human Rights Committee of the Council of Finnish Academies, and chair of the Board of Finnish Development NGOs Fingo External link, opens in new window..

Before joining the Nordic Africa Institute in 2019 she served as the Rector of the University of Tampere and before that as the Dean at the University of Helsinki, Faculty of Social Science. She was nominated to professorship at the University of Jyväskylä in 2004, in the field of Development and International Cooperation.

Her research interests cover elections, democratization, higher education, academic freedom, decolonization, international development policies and crisis management policies of the European Union. Her research project at the Nordic Africa Institute focuses on academic freedom in African universities and the impact of political science research on African politics.