Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak wins Holberg Prize, another feather in scholar’s cap
Telegraph | 18 March 2025
Literary theorist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has won the 2025 Holberg Prize of Norway, often billed as the Nobel for humanities.
The Calcutta-born Chakravorty Spivak — known for her translation of and introduction to Jacques Derrida’s De la grammatologie (Of Grammatology); her seminal essay, Can the Subaltern Speak?; and considered one of the most influential postcolonial intellectuals — is University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University.
The 83-year-old will receive the award of approximately $540,000 during a June 5 ceremony at the University of Bergen, Norway. The prize will be conferred by Crown Prince Haakon of Norway.
Holberg is one of the largest international research prizes awarded annually for outstanding research in the humanities, social sciences, law or theology. The prize is established and funded by the Norwegian government, and administered by the University of Bergen, on behalf of the Norwegian ministry of education and research.
“She receives the prize for her groundbreaking interdisciplinary research in comparative literature, translation, postcolonial studies, political philosophy, and feminist theory.... The Laureate has challenged and expanded the boundaries of contemporary thought both as a scholar, a public intellectual and an activist. In addition to her work at university, she has been teaching for the past 40 years in self-subsidised elementary schools among the so-called ‘untouchables’ and the tribals in the poorest parts of India, as part of her efforts to combat the absence of democratic education in marginalized rural communities across several countries,” the citation has said.
Holberg Committee Chair Heike Kriegers was quoted saying: “Taking the core of Western thought as an object of critical analysis, Spivak has inspired, enabled, and supported otherwise inconceivable lines of critical interrogations — both at the centres and margins of global modernity. She is a highly worthy recipient of the 2025 Holberg Prize.”
Chakravorty Spivak first studied at the University of Calcutta (she is an alumnus of what was then Presidency College) and then at Cornell University, where she completed her PhD in 1967.
She has since taught at more than 20 universities.
Supriya Chaudhuri, Professor Emerita of English at Jadavpur University, called Chakravorty Spivak’s prize an “extraordinary recognition for what she has done for the humanities, intellectual freedom and the understanding of the modern condition”.
“What is particularly special about her is a combination of extraordinarily brilliant theoretical complexity and perception and deep social responsibility. All her life, alongside intellectual pursuit, she has been involved in social service,” said Chaudhuri.
Harvard history professor Sugata Bose said he was “delighted” about Chakravorty Spivak’s new prize and that there was “poetic justice” in her selection.
“She is no uncritical admirer of European enlightenment. She is getting the award 20 years after Jürgen Habermas (a prominent German philosopher and sociologist, who received the Holberg Prize in 2005). Habarmas was a strong supporter of European enlightenment. The prize is named after Danish-Norwegian writer Ludvig Holberg, also a prominent figure of European enlightenment. Chakravorty Spivak’s selection shows that the Holberg Committee has also become broad-minded over the years,” said Bose.
Suranjan Das, former vice-chancellor of Calcutta University and Jadavpur University, said the award was a “source of pride” for Calcutta because Chakravorty Spivak was born here. “I was deeply moved after reading Can the Subaltern Speak? She showed that it was not right to say the subaltern did not have a voice. But the subaltern voice lacked an agency to make themselves heard, to make its presence felt in the dominant discourse,” said Das, now the VC of Adamas University.
In 2023, speaking at the opening session of the Kolkata Literary Meet at Victoria Memorial, Chakravorty Spivak said: “Kolkata is my hometown and I have always been impressed by the deep appreciation of book culture seemingly present in a section of its middle-class.”
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee congratulated Chakravorty Spivak on “attaining yet another top international recognition”.
“Professor Spivak is widely known for her contributions to literary theory and philosophy. But I have been also charmed by her long and sustained association with pro-poor voluntary services in some remote villages of West Bengal,” she posted on X.