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:
𝗕𝗼𝗿𝗶𝘀 𝗝𝗼𝗵𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗻, former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (2019 – 2022), Leader of the Conservative Party (2019 – 2022), Foreign Secretary (2016 – 2018), and Mayor of London (2008 – 2016).
𝗠𝗮𝗿𝘆 𝗞𝗮𝗹𝗱𝗼𝗿, Professor Emeritus of Global Governance and Director of the Conflict and Civicness Research Group, London School of Economics and Political Science.
𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗪𝗮𝗹𝘁, Robert and Renée Belfer Professor of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School of Government.
Moderator: 𝗦𝘁𝗲𝗽𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝗦𝗮𝗰𝗸𝘂𝗿, presenter at Times Radio, formerly presenter of BBC's HARDtalk (2005 – 2025).

The Debate took place on 9 December, 2025, in the University Aula in Bergen, Norway.

More information: holbergprize.org.

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.