Liina Lukas (born 5 August 1970) is an Estonian literary scholar and translator. She is Professor of comparative literature at the University of Tartu. Her research focuses on literary relations in the multilingual Baltic cultural space from the 18th to the early 20th centuries, especially Baltic German literature and EstonianâÂÂGerman literary contacts.
Lukas received her BA (1995), MA (1998) and PhD (2006) from the University of Tartu. Her doctoral dissertation, Baltisaksa kirjandusväli 1890âÂÂ1918, examined the Baltic German literary field at the turn of the 20th century. She also undertook advanced study in German studies at the University of Vienna and the University of Göttingen.
Since 1998 Lukas has worked at the University of Tartu and has also been affiliated with the Under and Tuglas Literature Centre (Estonian Academy of Sciences). According to the university profile, she became a docent in 2006 and served as associate professor (docent) of world literature from 2008 to 2021; from 1 February 2021 she has held the chair as Professor of Comparative Literature.
Her inaugural lecture as professor (Rahvalaulud kui maailmakirjandus / Folk songs as world literature) is published via the universityâÂÂs video portal UTTV.
LukasâÂÂs work centres on cultural transfer and literary relations in the Baltic region, with an emphasis on multilingual literary history and Baltic German writing. Since 2001 she has organised international symposia on Baltic written/literary culture, connected to long-running international cooperation in Baltic literary history.
She is editor-in-chief of the planned multi-volume scholarly series Balti kirjakultuuri ajalugu (History of Baltic written/literary culture), whose first volume (Keskused ja kandjad / Centres and bearers) appeared in 2021. The series and related research have also been presented internationally as a Baltic Historical CommissionâÂÂlinked project led by Lukas.
The University of Tartu profile also credits Lukas with leading the digital text repository of older Estonian literature EEVA for two decades.
In 2012 Lukas received the Vilis Vëtols Article Prize of the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) for the previous yearâÂÂs best article in the Journal of Baltic Studies.
In 2005 she received an honourable mention (ÃÂra märgitud) in the annual awards of the journal Keel ja Kirjandus.
In 2016 she was awarded the University of Tartu Badge of Distinction (Tartu ÃÂlikooli aumärk).
In 2022 she was elected a foreign member of the Göttingen Academy of Sciences and Humanities (Niedersächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Göttingen).
Lukas has appeared in Estonian cultural media discussing literary history and translation, including interviews connected to Goethe translation projects and Baltic literary culture.