Prof. Astrid Söderbergh Widding is the President of Stockholm University since 2013.
She obtained her PhD in 1992 at Stockholm University with a dissertation on off screen space in Andrei Tarkovsky's films. She was appointed Professor in Cinema Studies in 2000 and has held positions as Head of Department, Deputy Dean and Deputy Vice-Chancellor.

In 2006 she was responsible for the establishment of the Centre for Fashion Studies, and in 2009 she initiated the Journal of Aesthetics and Culture, for which she was Editor-in-Chief from 2009 to 2012.
Astrid Söderbergh Widding is a Fellow of the Royal Swedish Academy of Science and the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, Chair of the Association of Swedish Higher Education Institutions, Chair of the Principals Council of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation and member of the Board of Stockholm Environment Institute.

Previous external appointments include roles at the Board of the Fulbright Commission, the Board of the Swedish Film Institute and the Supervisory Committee of the National Library of Sweden. She has also been Chair of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation and film critic and media columnist in national daily Svenska Dagbladet.