Frans Willem Korsten (b. 1959) studied Dutch Literature and, Comparative and Literary Theory at Utrecht University. He wrote his PhD at the University of Amsterdam with Mieke Bal and Frans van Eemeren as his promoters. Since 1998 Frans Willem Korsten has been working mainly at the department of Film and Literary Studies of Leiden University. Since 2007 he also holds the endowed chair in Literature and Society at the Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication, Erasmus University Rotterdam. Since 2013 he has been a lector at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam, working particularly with the Piet Zwart Institute.

Korsten is a member of the editorial boards of Boom-The Hague Publisher, which focuses on a series of introductions into the philosophy of science and, of the open access Journal of Dutch Literature (AUP). He has also been a member of assessment committees for the Norwegian Research Council and for NWO. In the past, Korsten has served as director of Education of LUCAS, the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society (January 2010 ⎼ September 2013); as chairman for the section Letters at the National Council for Culture, and as a member of the Rotterdam Council for Culture, while he was also responsible for the NWO internationalization program Post, Autonomia and Precarity – The Global Heritage (2010-2014).