Published: March 17, 2025, 04:58 PM
Spivak will receive the 2025 Holberg Prize, considered the Nobel equivalent for humanities and social sciences, from Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon at a ceremony on June 5.
Indian scholar and literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak.(Photo : Columbia, Center for the Study of Social Difference)
Indian scholar and literary critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has been awarded the 2025 Holberg Prize, one of the most prestigious awards in the humanities and social sciences. The prize, worth EUR 515,000 (₹4.6 crore), will be presented to her by Norway’s Crown Prince Haakon on June 5.
Spivak, 82, is a professor at Columbia University and has made significant contributions to comparative literature, translation, postcolonial studies, political philosophy, and feminist theory. Born in Kolkata on February 24, 1942, she earned her PhD from Cornell University in 1967 after studying at the University of Calcutta. Since 2007, she has been a professor at Columbia and a founding member of its Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. Over her career, she has taught at more than 20 institutions and received numerous honors, including the Padma Bhushan (2013), the Kyoto Prize (2012), and the Modern Language Association Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award (2018). She holds 15 honorary doctorates and has received over 50 faculty awards.
Her 1988 essay Can the Subaltern Speak? remains one of the most influential works in postcolonial studies, exploring how marginalized voices are excluded from global discourse. The essay continues to shape discussions on political subjectivity and structural barriers faced by subaltern groups.
The Holberg Prize, established by the Norwegian Parliament in 2003 and administered by the University of Bergen, recognizes outstanding research in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law, and theology. Named after Danish-Norwegian philosopher Ludvig Holberg, it is considered the closest equivalent to the Nobel Prize in these fields.
