Holberg Prize Talks

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

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 read more and see previous enstallments at holbergprize.org/

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

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 the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He graduated from West Point (1970), has a PhD in political science from Cornell University (1981), and has written extensively about security issues and international politics. Among Mearsheimer’s six books, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (2001, 2014) won the Joseph Lepgold Book Prize; and The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy (with Stephen M. Walt, 2007), made the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into twenty-five languages. His latest book is The Great Delusion: Liberal Ideals and International Realities (2018), which won the 2019 Best Book of the Year Award from the Valdai Discussion Conference, Moscow. In addition, Mearsheimer has a forthcoming book (with Sebastian Rosato), Homo Theoreticus: Rationality in International Politics. He has also written numerous articles and op-eds that have appeared in International Security, London Review of Books, Foreign Affairs, The Financial Times, and The New York Times. In 2003, Mearsheimer was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and in 2020, he won the James Madison Award, which is given once every three years by the American Political Science Association to “an American political scientist who has made a distinguished scholarly contribution to political science.” Carl Bildt is Co-Chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations and contributing columnist to The Washington Post, as well as columnist for Project Syndicate. He serves as Senior Advisor to the Wallenberg Foundations in Sweden and is on the Board of Trustees of the RAND Corporation in the US. Bildt has served as both Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden. In March 2021, Bildt was appointed WHO Special Envoy for the Access to COVID-19 Tools Accelerator (ACT-Accelerator). Subsequently he served in international functions with the EU and UN, primarily related to the conflicts in the Balkans. Bildt was Co-Chairman of the Dayton peace talks on Bosnia and become the first High Representative in the country. Later, he was the Special Envoy of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan to the region. Cecilie Hellestveit (moderator) is a lawyer and social scientist with a PhD in international humanitarian law (IHL) from the University of Oslo. She has been associated with a number of research institutes in Norway and abroad. Hellestveit researches and teaches in the field of international law, use of force, and armed conflicts. holbergprize.org

"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-making and public reason differ across political cultures. Trust in expertise emerges as a political achievement that cannot be short-circuited by scientific authority alone. The remedy for breakdowns in trust lies in persuading publics that what experts know does indeed support official policies and regulatory actions. This often calls for better politics, not more science. Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. A pioneer in the social sciences, she explores the role of science and technology in the law, politics, and policy of modern democracies. Jasanoff founded and directs the STS Program at Harvard University. Her books include The Fifth Branch (1990), Science at the Bar (1995), Designs on Nature (2005), The Ethics of Invention (2016), and Can Science Make Sense of Life? (2019). Cathrine Holst is Professor of Sociology at the University of Oslo. She has chaired several research projects on the role of experts in democracies. In 2020/2021, she chaired a multidisciplinary research group at the Centre for Advanced Study (CAS) in Oslo, and the project "What is a good policy? Political morality, feasibility and democracy". In 2022/2033, Holst is a visiting researcher at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. This event is a part of the 2022 Holberg Week, which took place 7—10 June.

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 our knowledge to be thoroughly political projects. By unsettling the parameters of social order, science and technology also trouble—and perhaps expand—how we exercise political agency and enact life’s purposes. Sheila Jasanoff is Pforzheimer Professor of Science and Technology Studies at the Harvard Kennedy School. A pioneer in her field, she has authored more than 130 articles and chapters and is author or editor of more than 15 books, including "The Fifth Branch" (1990), "Science at the Bar" (1995), "Designs on Nature" (2005), "The Ethics of Invention" (2016), and "Can Science Make Sense of Life?" (2019). Her work explores the role of science and technology in the law, politics, and policy of modern democracies.

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 SA Studios in New York.

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.

This lecture by Manuel Castells was held at the University of Nordland in Bodø, 15 May, 2014 as part of a series of Holberg Lectures celebrating the 10th year anniversary of the Holberg Prize. 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. Manuel Castells recieved the Holberg Prize in 2014.