Holberg Prize Talks

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 skies, where migratory birds die in large numbers from air pollution; and, obviously, on the land, where the habitats of many large mammals have been destroyed almost beyond repair. Addressing these large problems requires dedicated work and effort. But it also requires a good normative theory to direct our efforts. Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago. She was awarded the 2021 Holberg Prize for her groundbreaking contributions to philosophy, law and related fields. See our website: holbergprize.org for more information and a full video version of the lecture.

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 approaches, social history and cooperation with the social sciences.

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 in 2003. The Holberg Prize is awarded annually to scholars who have made outstanding contributions to research in the arts and humanities, social science, law or theology. Natalie Zemon Davis received the Holberg Prize in 2010.

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, social sciences, law or theology.

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 part of the Holberg Prize 10 Years' anniversary at the University of Bergen on 11 September in 2014,

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. Sunstein is currently the Robert Walmsley University Professor at Harvard University. From 2009 to 2012, he was Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, where he helped oversee a wide range of reforms involving safety, air quality, civil rights, open government, climate change, economic opportunity, health, and reduction of poverty. He is the founder and director of the Program on Behavioural Economics and Public Policy at Harvard Law School. Mr. Sunstein has been involved in constitution-making and law reform activities in many nations. His government service includes membership on President Barack Obama's Review Group on Intelligence and Communications Technologies (2013) and the U.S. Department of Defense's Innovation Board (2016-2017).

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 University of Cambridge, a crossbench member of the House of Lords and a former President of the British Academy (2005–2009).

Stephen Greenblatt, John Cogan University Professor at Harvard University, is the 2016 Holberg Laureate. In this interview Greenblatt shares his thoughts on the role of New Historicism in literary studies, the socio-economic changes in the US in the 1960's and 1970's, and how the work of William Shakespeare is still relevant today, 400 years after his death. Greenblatt is interviewed by Charles Ivan Armstrong, Professor of English Literature at the University of Agder. The production is a collaboration between the Holberg Prize and the University of Bergen.

Marina Warner received the Holberg Prize in 2015 for her work on the analysis of stories and myths and how they reflect their time and place. Professor Dame Marina Warner, FBA, is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Birkbeck College, University of London, Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford, and Professorial Research Fellow at SOAS. Warner is Interviewed by Kari Jegerstedt from the University of Bergen.