Holberg International Memorial Prize
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Holberg International Memorial Prize was established in 2003 by the government of Norway with the objective of increasing awareness of the value of academic scholarship within the arts, humanities, social sciences, law and theology, either within one of these fields or through interdisciplinary work. The Holberg prize complements the Abel Prize in mathematics established in 2002.
The Holberg prize draws on the 200 million Norwegian kroner Ludvig Holberg Memorial Fund, established on 1 July 2003 by the Norwegian Government. Responsibility for administering the Holberg Prize was given by the Government of Norway to the University of Bergen. In turn the University of Bergen has established a Board of the Ludvig Holberg Memorial Fund and appointed an academic committee composed of prominent researchers from relevant academic fields and different universities. The Board of the Ludvig Holberg Memorial Fund awards the annual prize on the basis of the recommendation of the academic committee's evaluation of nominations submitted by scholars holding a senior position at universities and other research institutions within the academic fields covered by the prize.
Its first recipient was Julia Kristeva in 2004, and in 2005 it was awarded to Jürgen Habermas. The 2006 prize went to Professor emeritus in sociology at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Shmuel Eisenstadt.
The prize includes a cash award of 4.5 million Norwegian kroner.
The prize is named after the playwright Ludvig Holberg who excelled in all of the sciences covered by the award. The prize has attracted some controversy, and the award committee, which counts three Norwegians and one Dane, has been criticised for lacking full academic credibility internationally, notably by Jon Elster.
[edit] External links
- The Holberg Prize website
- Reactions, from the Norwegian researchers' association
- Debate, from forskning.no
- Jon Elster: Too much politeness, too little quality, about Norwegian academic life in general and the Holberg Prize in particular
