Holberg Prize Talks

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 work in the fields of literary theory and philosophy. Spivak is University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.

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? Daniela Alaattinoğlu is Assistant Professor of Law at the University of Turku and the recipient of the 2025 Nils Klim Prize.

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 and excludes individuals and groups. Interviewer: Rosa Lampela, University of Turku The podcast is engineered and edited by Antti Tarponen, University of Turku.

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 Edwards is the Peng Family Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University. This interview was conducted at Columbia University on 26 May 2025. We wish to extend our gratitude to Professor Spivak and Professor Edwards for producing this podcast for the Holberg Prize. Photo: Alice Attie.

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 and Economic Research, University of the Witwatersrand. He is also Director of the Innovation Foundation for Democracy. Photo: Eivind Senneset / The Holberg Prize

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 Stavanger. He is also professor II at the Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET), University of Bergen. Interviewer: Professor Håvard Haarstad, Director at CET. The 2024 Holberg Week takes place from 4 -- 6 June in Bergen and Oslo. There Holberg Laureate Achille Mbembe and Nils Klim Laureate Siddharth Sareen will be celebrated with award ceremonies and acedemic events. For more information, see holbergprize.org.

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, 2024. Achille Mbembe receives the 2024 Holberg Prize for his pioneering research in African history, postcolonial studies, humanities, and social science over four decades

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. Interviewer: Professor Håvard Haarstad, Department of Geography, University of Bergen. For more information see the Holberg Prize website: https://holbergprize.org/en. Photo: Eivind Senneset

Joining the discussion are Anil Seth, a neuroscientist passionate about consciousness, anthropologist Tanya Luhrmann, and biologist Rupert Sheldrake, known for his unorthodox ideas. They explore whether consciousness stems solely from the brain or transcends it. The conversation delves into personal experiences versus cultural influences on perception and delves into fascinating topics like tulpamancy, the concept of the extended mind, and the historical evolution of consciousness. Together, they challenge conventional views and inspire new ways of understanding our minds.

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. The economy is not circular, it is entropic. There are thousands of “ecological distribution conflicts” at the frontiers of commodity extractions and waste disposal. Their protagonists display many different valuation languages and repertoires of action. “Land, Water, Air and Freedom” seems a good slogan and also a short description of the aims of the world movements for environmental justice. Photo: Joan Vidal / The Holberg Prize