The Holberg Prize is an international prize awarded annually by the government of Norway to outstanding scholars for work in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law and theology, either within one of these fields or through interdisciplinary work.
The prize was established by the Parliament of Norway in honour of Ludvig Holberg in 2003 and complements its sister prize in mathematics, the Abel Prize. Ludvig Holberg excelled in all of the sciences covered by the award. It has been described as the "Nobel prize" for the arts and humanities, social sciences, law and theology.
The Holberg Prize is funded by the government's budget through a direct allocation from the Ministry of Education and Research to the University of Bergen, and is administered by the University of Bergen on behalf of the Ministry of Education and Research. The Holberg Prize award ceremony takes place annually in Bergen, Norway in June.
The Holberg Board awards the prize at the recommendation of the Holberg Committee who consists of five outstanding researchers in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law and theology. The Holberg Committee gathers assessments on the short-list candidates from international recognized scholars before giving their recommendation to the Board. The Prize amount is 4.5 million Norwegian kroner (approximately €500,000), which are intended to be used to further the research of the recipient.
Symposium in Honor of Julia Kristeva, 2004Participants: Kelly Oliver, Sara Beardsworth, John Fletcher, Atle Kittang and Iréne Matthis.
Symposium in Honor of Jürgen Habermas, 2005 – "Religion in the Public Sphere" Participants: Arne Johan Vetlesen, Gunnar Skirbekk, Cristina Lafont, Cathrine Holst, Helge Høibraaten, Craig Calhoun, Thomas M. Schmidt, Jon Hellesnes, Hauke Brunkhorst and Tore Lindholm.
Symposium in Honor of Shmuel Eisenstadt, 2006Participants: Jack A. Goldstone, Jonathan Friedman, Sverre Bagge, Johann P. Arnason, Donald Levine, Bernhard Giesen, Shalini Randeria, Jeffrey Alexander, Fredrik Barth, Rajeev Bhargava, Said Amir Arjomand, Shalini Randeria, Luis Roniger, Nina Witoszek-FitzPatrick, Yehuda Elkana, Georg Klein, Bernt Hagtvet and Jeffrey Alexander.
Symposium in Honor of Ronald Dworkin, 2007 Participants: Jan Fridthjof Bernt, Stephen Guest, Frank Henry Sommer, Jeremy Bentham's severed head, Jeremy Waldron, Peter Koller, Rebecca Brown, Seana Shiffrin, Thomas Nagel, Rainer Forst, Dietmar von der Pfordten and Synne Sæther Mæhle.
Symposium in Honor of Fredric Jameson, 2008 Participants: William A. Lane, Jr, Astrid Söderbergh Widding, Paik Nak-chung, Maria Elisa Cevasco, Wang Hui, Michael Löwy, Perry Anderson, Sara Danius, Helmut F. Stern and Xiaobing Tang.
Symposium in Honor of Ian Hacking, 2009 Participants: Ragnar Fjelland, Professor Dagfinn Føllesdal, Bruna De Marchi and Merle Jacob.
Symposium in Honor of Natalie Zemon Davies, 2010 – "Doing decentered history – the global in the local" Participants: Bonnie G. Smith, David Abulafia, Joan W. Scott, Ida Blom and Erling Sverdrup Sandmo.
Symposium in Honor of Jürgen Kocka, 2011 – "Civil Society and the Welfare State: Competitors or allies?" Participants: Theda Skocpol, Christoph Conrad, Per Selle, Simone Lässig, Stein Kuhnle and Ivar Bleiklie.
Symposium in Honor of Manuel Castells, 2012 – "Media and Democracy" Participants: Ivar Bleiklie, Helga Nowotny, Göran Therborn, Helen Margetts, Andrew Chadwick, Jostein Gripsrud, Terhi Rantanen, Annabelle Sreberny, William Dutton and Mette Andersson.
The Holberg Prize Academic Committee is composed of five members:
Hazel Genn, FBA, Professor of Socio-Legal Studies, University College, London
Pratap Bhanu Mehta, President, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
Etan Kohlberg, Professor of Islamic Studies, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mary Jacobus, Professor of English, Cambridge University
Björn Wittrock, University Professor, Uppsala University
As part of its research dissemination targeting younger people, the committee also awards the Nils Klim Prize to an academic below the age of 35, and the Holberg Prize Schools Project to a high school.
