Holberg Prize Talks

Professor Lyndal Roper is the 2026 Holberg Laureate. Roper is the Regius Chair of History at the University of Oxford emeritus. In this interview, conducted by Matt Pickles in March 2026, Roper talks about her background, her research and the challenges and opportunities facing the humanities. Professor Roper is internationally recognized as one of the leading scholars of early modern European his...

At the 2025 Holberg Debate, Mary Kaldor, Boris Johnson, Stephen Walt and Stephen Sackur (moderator) met to discuss current conditions for collective security and global stability. As war returns to Europe, global institutions falter, and great power rivalry intensifies, the foundations of collective security are under strain. Is liberal internationalism—often seen as a framework for global coopera...

Is the West in decline, and if so, what are the implications for the future of democracy and the global order? The panelists for the 2024 Holberg Debate were Cynthia Miller-Idriss, Yanis Varoufakis and Konstantin Kisin. The debate was chaired by Sarah Montague. The Holberg Debate is an annual event organized by the Holberg Prize. You can read more and see previous enstallments at holbergprize.org

On 4 June 2025, Gayatri C. Spivak delivered the Holberg Lecture: "Imperatives to Re-imagine the Future" at the University Aula in Bergen. An imperative is an urgent command, generally brought about by external circumstances. Today, natural violence creates an imperative to develop a planetary view of the future. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak was awarded the 2025 Holberg Prize for her groundbreaking w...

This lecture by the 2025 Nils Klim Laureate Daniela Alaattinoğlu was held as part of the Nils Klim Symposium: ‘Nordic Right Development from the Margins? Reassessing Legal Inclusion and Exclusion.’ , which took place in the University Aula in Bergen, on 3 June 2025. Alaattinoğlu asks: How can experiences often marginalised in legal discussions enrich current accounts of Nordic rights developments?...

The Holberg Prize is delighted to present this interview with the 2025 Nils Klim Laureate, Daniela Alaattinoğlu. The podcast is a collaboration with the University of Turku. Alaattinoğlu is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Turku. She receives the award for her research into how laws and societies evolve together, how groups mobilise for change, and how law intersectionally includes...

The 2025 Holberg Laureate Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in conversation with Professor Brent Hayes Edwards. In this interview, Professor Spivak talks about the major areas of her work, as well her life and career path. Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is a University Professor at Columbia University and a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. Brent Hayes E...

On 5 June 2024 Holberg Laureate Achille Mbembe held his Holberg Lecture: "The Earthly Community" in the University Aula in Bergen. How should we inhabit anew and share as equitably as possible a planet whose life-support system has been so severely damaged by human activities as to be in dire need of repair? Achille Mbembe is Research Professor of History and Politics at Wits Institute for Social...

Siddharth Sareen is the 2024 Nils Klim Laureate. He receives the prize for his research in environmental social sciences. In this interview, he speaks about his background, his academic journey, his research interests, and the work that lead to his being rewarded the Nils Klim Prize. Sareen is professor of energy and environment at the Department of Media and Social Sciences, University of Stavang...

The 2024 Laureate Achille Mbembe in conversation with Hlonipha Mokoena. Achille Mbembe is research professor of history and politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WISER), at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (Wits). Hlonipha Mokoena is professor and acting Co-Director at WiSER, Wits University. The interview was conducted at Wits University, on 13 March, 2...

The 2023 Holberg Prize was awarded to Catalan scholar Joan Martinez-Alier for his groundbreaking research in ecological economics, political ecology and environmental justice. Martinez-Alier is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (ICTA-UAB). In this interview, he talks about his academic scholarship and activism. Int...

Do conscious experiences happen both within and outside the brain, and can science solve the 'hard problem' of consciousness? At the 2023 Holberg Debate, Tanya Luhrmann, Anil Seth and Rupert Sheldrake met to explore the deep scientific and philosophical mystery of consciousness. The debate was chaired by David Malone. The Holberg Debate is an annual event organized by the Holberg Prize. You can re...

On Wednesday, 7 June, the 2023 Holberg Prize Laureate Joan Martinez-Alier held the lecture: "Land, Water, Air and Freedom" in the University Aula in Bergen. Mapping geographies of resistance at the frontiers of commodity extraction and waste disposal in a world counter-movement for environmental justice. As the industrial economy grows, there is also growth and changes in the Social Metabolism. Th...

The 2022 Holberg Debate: "Will Fear Keep Us Safe?" How will the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical crises impact the global security order, and what do they mean for the power of deterrence ? Panel: John J. Mearsheimer and Carl Bildt Moderator: Cecilie Hellestveit Organizer: The Holberg Prize John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science at...

"Expertise, Democracy and the Politics of Trust" 2022 Holberg Laureate Sheila Jasanoff in conversation with Professor Cathrine Holst. Phenomena such as climate skepticism and vaccine refusal indicate a loss of trust in relations between experts and publics in modern democracies. Comparisons of expert decision-making across democratic societies suggest that reliance on particular forms of evidence-...

The Holberg Lecture by Sheila Jasanoff was held on 8 June 2022 in Bergen, as part of the 2022 Holberg Week Programme. Science and technology are so commonly seen as drivers of progress that their role in forming the horizons of individual and collective self-understanding often passes unnoticed in political theory and practice. STS corrects this imbalance by revealing what we know and how we apply...

The 2021 Holberg Debate: "Identity Politics and Culture Wars" Does identity politics as it is currently manifesting itself offer a suitable avenue towards social justice, or has it become a recipe for cultural antagonism, political polarization, and new forms of injustice? Panel: Judith Butler, Cornel West, Glenn Greenwald. Moderator: Simon Critchley The event was recorded on 4 December 2021, at S...

In 2017, Katrine Vellesen Løken became Nils Klim Laureate. In this 2021 interview, she discusses her career choices and motivation, and describes her research interests. Vellesen Løken is interviewed by Ine Røvik for the Holberg Prize.

The Holberg Lecture by Holberg Laureate Martha C. Nussbaum was held on 8 June, 2021. Animals suffer injustice at our hands: the cruelties of the factory farming industry, poaching and trophy hunting, assaults on the habitats of many creatures, and innumerable other instances of cruelty and neglect. Human domination is everywhere: in the seas, where marine mammals die from ingesting plastic; in the...

In this lecture Jürgen Kocka speaks about the history of the European Union and its present challenges. The lecture was held at the University of Agder in Kristiansand, Norway 5 May 2014, as part of the 10th year anniversary of the Holberg Prize. The Holberg Prize was awarded to Jürgen Kocka in 2011. Kocka is a historian of modern Germany and Europe and he is particularly interested in comparative...

Dealing with Strangeness: Information Flow and Language in a Colonial Slave Society Holberg Lecture by Natalie Zemon Davis at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, May 8th 2014. The Holberg Lectures was a series of lectures with previous Holberg Prize laureates held as part of the ten-year anniversary of the Holberg Prize. The Holberg Prize was established by the Norwegian Government...

This lecture by Jürgen Habermas was held at at the University of stavanger, on 11 September 2014, as part of the ten-year anniversary of the Holberg Prize. Jürgen Habermas recieved the Holberg Prize in 2005. The Holberg Prize was established by the Norwegian Government in 2003. The Holberg Prize is awarded annually to scholars who have made outstanding contributions to research in the humanities,...

In this lecture Julia Kristeva proposes a new interpretation of the experience of revolt: far from simply a negation or contestation of the norm, revolt is a transvaluation of memory, a reconstruction of subjectivity. Setting out from this definition, Kristeva stresses the personal experience of revolt as an infinite refounding of the self, and as a motor of social change. The lecture was held as...

In this interview from June 4 , 2018 Holberg Laureate Cass R. Sunstein talks about his research, his background , and how he has worked to promote enduring constitutional ideals - freedom, dignity, equality, self-government, the rule of law - under contemporary circumstances. Sunstein is interviewed by Anine Kierulf, Research Director at the Norwegian National Human Rights Institution. Cass R. Sun...

In this interview, 2017 Holberg Laureate Onora O’Neill discusses a variety of topics, including Immanuel Kant and public reason, human rights and duties, the ethics for communication and the dilemmas that arise from media globalisation. O’Neill is interviewed by Professor of Philosophy Lars Fredrik Svendsen, University of Bergen. Baroness Onora O’Neill is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at the Un...