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 history. Her pioneering studies have reshaped understandings of witch persecutions, the German Peasants’ War (1524–1525), and the life and thought of Martin Luther, illuminating how gender, the body, psyche and power operated in social and religious conflicts of the sixteenth century. The interview is produced by the University of Oxford and Oxford Atelier for the Holberg Prize.

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 cooperation, but also criticized for legitimizing interventionist policies—now obsolete? On the panel:

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 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

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: Eivind Senneset / 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 t

"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

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

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 webiste: holbergprize.org for more information.

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.