The Holberg Prize is an international prize awarded annually by the

government of Norway The politics of Norway take place in the framework of a parliamentary, representative democratic constitutional monarchy. Executive power is exercised by the Council of State, the cabinet, led by the prime minister of Norway. Legislative power i ...

to outstanding scholars for work in

the arts The arts are a very wide range of human practices of creative expression, storytelling and cultural participation. They encompass multiple diverse and plural modes of thinking, doing and being, in an extremely broad range of media. Both ...

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture. In the Renaissance, the term contrasted with divinity and referred to what is now called classics, the main area of secular study in universities at the t ...

social sciences Social science is one of the branches of science, devoted to the study of societies and the relationships among individuals within those societies. The term was formerly used to refer to the field of sociology, the original "science of soci ...

, law and theology, either within one of these fields or through interdisciplinary work. The prize is named after the Danish-Norwegian writer and academic

Ludvig Holberg Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg (3 December 1684 – 28 January 1754) was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano-Norwegian dual monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, ...

(1684–1754). The Holberg Prize comes with a monetary award of 6 million Norwegian kroner (

NOK Nok is a village in Jaba Local Government Area of Kaduna State, Nigeria. The village is an archeological site. Archaeology The discovery of terracotta figurines at this location caused its name to be used for the Nok culture, of which these ...

) (approximately $750 000 or €660 000), which are intended to be used to further the research of the recipient. The winner of the Holberg Prize is announced in March, and the award ceremony takes place every June in Bergen, Norway. According to a reputation survey conducted in 2018, the Holberg Prize is the most prestigious interdisciplinary award in the social sciences (jointly with the

Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research The Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research is an academic honour awarded by the International Science Council, the University of Bergen and the European Consortium for Political Research, in memory of the political scientist a ...

History

The prize was established by the

Parliament of Norway The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

in honor of

in 2003 and complements its sister prize in mathematics, the

Abel Prize The Abel Prize ( ; no, Abelprisen ) is awarded annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. It is named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and directly modeled after the Nobel Prizes. ...

. Ludvig Holberg, who excelled in all the disciplines covered by the award, played an important part in bringing the Enlightenment to the Nordic countries and is also well known as a playwright and author. The objective of the prize was to increase awareness of the value of academic scholarship in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law and theology. It has been described as the "Nobel Prize" for the arts and humanities, social sciences, law and theology.

Selection criteria

The Holberg Prize is awarded annually to scholars who have made "outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law or theology." Scholars holding positions at universities and other research institutions, including academies, are eligible to nominate candidates to the Holberg Prize and the Nils Klim Prize. Self-nominations are not permitted. The Holberg Board awards the prize at the recommendation of the Holberg Committee.The Holberg Committee meets twice. At the first meeting, in early fall, they choose a shortlist from the nominations. The Committee then gather assessments on the short-list candidates from internationally recognized scholars before giving their final recommendation to the Board.

Organization

The Holberg Prize is funded through a direct allocation from the Norwegian government's budget. It is administered by the University of Bergen on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research. The University of Bergen appoints the executive board of the Holberg Prize. The Holberg Board consists of the board chair and five board members. The board members must work in different institutions, and at least one board member must work outside the university and university college sector. Board members are appointed for a period of four years and may be reappointed once. The current Holberg Board is composed of: Kjersti Fløttum (Chair,

University of Bergen The University of Bergen ( no, Universitetet i Bergen, ) is a research-intensive state university located in Bergen, Norway. As of 2019, the university has over 4,000 employees and 18,000 students. It was established by an act of parliament in 194 ...

Knut Olav Åmås Knut Olav Åmås (born 19 January 1968) is a Norwegian writer, editor and politician for the Conservative Party. He hails from Odda. He holds a cand.philol. degree in philosophy, having taken his master's thesis on Ludwig Wittgenstein at the U ...

( Fritt Ord), Lise Rye (

Norwegian University of Science and Technology Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway *Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including the ...

), Hans Petter Graver (

University of Oslo The University of Oslo ( no, Universitetet i Oslo; la, Universitas Osloensis) is a public research university located in Oslo, Norway. It is the highest ranked and oldest university in Norway. It is consistently ranked among the top universit ...

), Siv Ellen Kraft (

University of Tromsø The University of Tromsø – The Arctic University of Norway (Norwegian: ''Universitetet i Tromsø – Norges arktiske universitet''; Northern Sami: ''Romssa universitehta – Norgga árktalaš universitehta'') is a state university in Norway an ...

) and Torkild Hovde Lyngstad (

). The Holberg Board awards the prize at the recommendation of the Holberg Committee who consists of five outstanding researchers in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law and theology. The current Holberg Prize Academic Committee is composed of: Graeme Turner (Committee chairman,

The University of Queensland , mottoeng = By means of knowledge and hard work , established = , endowment = A$224.3 million , budget = A$2.1 billion , type = Public research university , chancellor = Peter Varghese , vice_chancellor = Deborah Terry , city = Br ...

), Mary Beard (

University of Cambridge , mottoeng = Literal: From here, light and sacred draughts. Non literal: From this place, we gain enlightenment and precious knowledge. , established = , other_name = The Chancellor, Masters and Schola ...

David Nirenberg David Nirenberg is a medievalist and intellectual historian. He is the Director and Leon Levy Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ. He previously taught at the University of Chicago, where he was Dean of the Divinity Scho ...

(

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...

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(

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

), Maurice Crul (

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam The Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam (abbreviated as ''VU Amsterdam'' or simply ''VU'' when in context) is a public research university in Amsterdam, Netherlands, being founded in 1880. The VU Amsterdam is one of two large, publicly funded research ...

) and

Cui Zhiyuan Cui Zhiyuan (), born in Beijing in 1963, is a professor at the School of Public Policy and Management in Tsinghua University, Beijing and

( Tsinghua University). Previous members of the Holberg Committee are among others:

Mary Jacobus Mary Jacobus (February 11, 1957 – February 20, 2009) was an American journalist. She was an executive with The New York Times Company, serving as president and general manager of ''The Boston Globe'' from January through September 2006, an ...

(

Helga Nowotny Helga Nowotny (born 1937) is Professor emeritus of Social Studies of Science, ETH Zurich. She has held numerous leadership roles on Academic boards and public policy councils, and she has authored many publications in the social studies of science ...

(

ETH Zurich (colloquially) , former_name = eidgenössische polytechnische Schule , image = ETHZ.JPG , image_size = , established = , type = Public , budget = CHF 1.896 billion (2021) , rector = Günther Dissertori , president = Joël Mesot , ac ...

Kwame Anthony Appiah Kwame Akroma-Ampim Kusi Anthony Appiah ( ; born 8 May 1954) is a philosopher, cultural theorist, and novelist whose interests include political and moral theory, the philosophy of language and mind, and African intellectual history. Appiah wa ...

(

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Toril Moi Toril Moi (born 28 November 1953 in Farsund, Norway) is James B. Duke Professor of Literature and Romance Studies and Professor of English, Philosophy and Theatre Studies at Duke University. Moi is also the Director of the Center for Philosophy, ...

(

Duke University Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist James ...

Stein Kuhnle Stein Kuhnle (born 22 November 1947) is a Norwegian political scientist. He was born in Bergen, a son of Jacob R. Kuhnle. He was appointed professor of comparative politics at the University of Bergen in 1982. Among his works is ''Velferdsstat ...

( The Norwegian Academy og Science and Letters), Johan P. Olsen (

), and Pratap Bhanu Mehta ( Center for policy research).

Laureates

The Holberg Week

During The Holberg Week in June, The Holberg Prize hosts a series of lectures, discussions and other events in honor of the Holberg Laureate and the Nils Klim Laureate. The events feature the laureates, as well as other high-profile international scholars. The program feature, among other things, the Holberg Symposium, the Nils Klim Seminar and the Holberg Lecture. All events during the Holberg week, with the exception of the award ceremony and government banquet, are open to all and have free entrance. Several of the events are also livestreamed, and available to an international audience.

The Holberg Debate

The Holberg Debate is an annual event organised by the Holberg Prize. The debate is inspired by Ludvig Holberg's Enlightenment ideas and aims to explore pressing issues of our time. The Holberg Debate was organised for the first time in 2016 and has since been held annually, on the first Saturday in December. The aim is both to see important voices debate pressing issues of our time and to highlight the relevance of the academic fields covered by the Holberg Prize: the humanities, social sciences, law and theology. Thus, the Holberg Debate seeks to engage both the university community and the public at large, and seeks to invite well known thinkers with a diverse background, including academics, journalists, authors, film makers and activists. Former participants in the Holberg Debate are

Slavoj Žižek Slavoj Žižek (, ; ; born 21 March 1949) is a Slovenian philosopher, cultural theorist and public intellectual. He is international director of the Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities at the University of London, visiting professor at New Y ...

Timothy Garton Ash Timothy Garton Ash CMG FRSA (born 12 July 1955) is a British historian, author and commentator. He is Professor of European Studies at Oxford University. Most of his work has been concerned with the contemporary history of Europe, with a spe ...

Jostein Gripsrud Jostein Gripsrud (born 1952) is a Norwegian media scholar, and is Professor in Media Studies at the University of Bergen. Life and work Gripsrud completed his MA exam at the University of Bergen, Norway, in 1979 and started as lecturer in Norw ...

Jonathan Heawood Jonathan Heawood is an English journalist and literary editor. He is Executive Director of thPublic Interest News Foundation the first journalism charity in the UK to be awarded charitable status. Heawood is the founder and former CEO of IMP ...

John Pilger John Richard Pilger (; born 9 October 1939) is an Australian journalist, writer, scholar, and documentary filmmaker. He has been mainly based in Britain since 1962. He was also once visiting professor at Cornell University in New York. Pilger ...

and

Julian Assange Julian Paul Assange ( ; Hawkins; born 3 July 1971) is an Australian editor, publisher, and activist who founded WikiLeaks in 2006. WikiLeaks came to international attention in 2010 when it published a series of leaks provided by U.S. Army inte ...

Other prizes

As part of its research dissemination targeting younger people, the Holberg Prize also awards two other prizes: *The Nils Klim Prize is awarded annually to a younger Nordic researcher who has made an outstanding contribution to research in the arts and humanities, social science, law or theology. *The Holberg Prize School Project is a research competition for students in the upper secondary schools in Norway.

Symposiums

The Holberg Symposium is held annually in honor of the winner of The Holberg Prize. The event hosts prominent speakers who partake in a symposium dedicated to The Holberg Prize laureate. *Symposium in Honor of Julia Kristeva, 2004 – "Thinking About Liberty in Dark Times" ** Participants: Kelly Oliver, Sara Beardsworth, John Fletcher, Atle Kittang and Iréne Matthis. * Symposium in Honor of Jürgen Habermas, 2005 – "Religion in the Public Sphere" ** Participants: Arne Johan Vetlesen, Gunnar Skirbekk, Cristina Lafont, Cathrine Holst, Helge Høibraaten, Craig Calhoun, Thomas M. Schmidt, Jon Hellesnes, Hauke Brunkhorst and Tore Lindholm. * Symposium in Honor of Shmuel Eisenstadt, 2006 – "The Processes that Change the World" ** Participants: Jack A. Goldstone, Jonathan Friedman, Sverre Bagge, Johann P. Arnason, Donald Levine, Bernhard Giesen, Shalini Randeria, Jeffrey Alexander, Fredrik Barth, Rajeev Bhargava, Said Amir Arjomand, Shalini Randeria, Luis Roniger, Nina Witoszek-FitzPatrick, Yehuda Elkana, Georg Klein, Bernt Hagtvet and Jeffrey Alexander. * Symposium in Honor of Ronald Dworkin, 2007 ** Participants: Jan Fridthjof Bernt, Stephen Guest, Frank Henry Sommer, Jeremy Bentham's severed head, Jeremy Waldron, Peter Koller, Rebecca Brown, Seana Shiffrin, Thomas Nagel, Rainer Forst, Dietmar von der Pfordten and Synne Sæther Mæhle. * Symposium in Honor of Fredric Jameson, 2008 ** Participants: William A. Lane, Jr, Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Paik Nak-chung, Maria Elisa Cevasco, Wang Hui, Michael Löwy, Perry Anderson,

Sara Danius Sara Maria Danius (5 April 1962 – 12 October 2019) was a Swedish literary critic and philosopher, and a scholar of literature and aesthetics. Danius was professor of aesthetics at Södertörn University, docent of literature at Uppsala Univers ...

, Helmut F. Stern and Xiaobing Tang. * Symposium in Honor of Ian Hacking, 2009 ** Participants: Ragnar Fjelland, Professor Dagfinn Føllesdal, Bruna De Marchi and Merle Jacob. * Symposium in Honor of Natalie Zemon Davies, 2010 – "Doing decentered history – the global in the local" ** Participants: Bonnie G. Smith, David Abulafia, Joan W. Scott, Ida Blom and Erling Sverdrup Sandmo. * Symposium in Honor of Jürgen Kocka, 2011 – "Civil Society and the Welfare State: Competitors or allies?" ** Participants: Theda Skocpol, Christoph Conrad, Per Selle, Simone Lässig, Stein Kuhnle and Ivar Bleiklie. * Symposium in Honor of Manuel Castells, 2012 – "Media and Democracy" ** Participants: Ivar Bleiklie, Helga Nowotny, Göran Therborn,

Helen Margetts Helen Zerlina Margetts (born 15 September 1961), is Professor of Internet and Society at the Oxford Internet Institute (OII), University of Oxford and from 2011 to 2018 was Director of the OII. She is currently Director of the Public Policy Prog ...

, Andrew Chadwick,

, Terhi Rantanen, Annabelle Sreberny, William Dutton and Mette Andersson. * Symposium in Honor of Bruno Latour, 2013 – "From Economics to Ecology". ** Participants: Barbara Czarniawska, Dominique Pestre, Mike Hulme, Bronislaw Szerszynski, Oliver Morton, Adam Lowe, * Symposium in Honor of Michael Cook, 2014 – "Ancient Religions, Modern Dissent". ** Participants: Guy Stroumsa, Sabine Schmidtke, Maribel Fierro, Petra Sijpesteijn, Muhammad Qasim Zaman, and Mona Siddiqui. * Symposium in Honor of Marina Warner, 2015 – "Myth, Homelessness, and the "Country of Words”". ** Participants: Wendy Doniger, Roy Foster, Finbarr Barry Flood, Wen-chin Ouyang, and Tamim al-Barghouti. * Symposium in Honor of Stephen Greenblatt, 2016 – "Art in life/Life in art". ** Participants: Horst Bredekamp, Joseph Koerner, Pippa Skotnes, Homi Bhabha, Adam Phillips, Sarah Cole, Louis Menand, and Daniel Jütte. * Symposium in Honor of Onora O'Neill, 2017 – "Ethics for Communication". ** Participants: Jonathan Heawood, Rowan Cruft, Laura Valentini, Steven Barnett, and Rae Langton. * Symposium in Honor of Cass Sunstein, 2018 – "Democracy and Truth". ** Participants: Tali Sharot,

Tyler Cowen Tyler Cowen (; born January 21, 1962) is an American economist, columnist and blogger. He is a professor at George Mason University, where he holds the Holbert L. Harris chair in the economics department. He hosts the economics blog ''Marginal R ...

, Samantha Power, Lawrence Lessig *Symposium in Honor of Paul Gilroy, 2019 – "From Double Consciousness to Planetary Humanism". **Participants: Temi Odumosu, Sivamohan Valluvan, Lidia Curti, and Katherine McKittrick. *Symposium in Honor of Griselda Pollock, 2020, will take place 2021.

References

External links

The Holberg Prize website

Reactions, from the Norwegian researchers' association

Debate, from ''forskning.no''

Jon Elster: Too much politeness, too little quality
about Norwegian academic life in general and the Holberg Prize in particular {{Philosophy awards Awards established in 2003 Norwegian awards Social sciences awards Philosophy awards History awards 2003 establishments in Norway