Recently, both the Holberg Committee and the Nils Klim Committee convened to put forward their recommendation on this year’s laurates. Both committees made their deliberations via video link, due to the pandemic.

The Nils Klim Committee met on 17 January to consider a shortlist of six candidates, based on 12 nominations submitted. The Committee has consisted of:

• Ástráður Eysteinsson (Chair), Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Iceland.
• Auli Vähäkangas, Professor of Pastoral Theology and Vice Dean of the Faculty of Theology, University of Helsinki.
• Xavier Groussot, Professor of EU Law and Pro Dean at the Faculty of Law, Lund University.
• Grete Brochmann, Professor at the Department of Sociology and Human Development, University of Oslo.
• Dorthe Staunæs, Professor of Social Psychology, Danish School of Education, Emdrup, Aarhus University.

The Holberg Committee met on 28 January to evaluate the candidates for the Holberg Prize. Of 110 nominations submitted, resulting in 93 candidates, they had agreed on a shortlist of five people.  

The Committee members were:

• Heike Krieger Heike Krieger (Chair), Professor of Public Law and International Law, Freie Universität Berlin og Max Planck Fellow.
• Cui Zhiyuan Professor, School of Public Policy and Management, Tsinghua University.
• Ann Phoenix, Professor of Psychosocial Studies, IOE-Social Research Institute, University College London.
• Jean Grondin, Professor of Philosophy, Department of Philosophy, University of Montreal.
• Luke Bretherton, Robert E. Cushman Distinguished Professor of Moral and Political Theology and Senior Fellow of the Kenan Institute for Ethics, Duke University.

On 3 February, the Board of the Holberg Prize convened and made a decision on awarding the 2022 Holberg Prize and Nils Klim-prize, based on the recommendations of the two academic committees.

All board members were present:

• Kjersti Fløttum (Chair), Professor in French at the Department of Foreign Languages, University of Bergen.
• Hans Petter Graver, Professor, Department of Private Law, University of Oslo.
• Siv Ellen Kraft, Professor, Department of Archaeology, History, Religious Studies and Theology, UiT The Arctic University of Norway.
• Torkild Hovde Lyngstad, Professor, Department of Sociology and Human Geography, University of Oslo.
• Lise Rye, Professor, Department of Historical and Classical Studies, Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
• Knut Olav Åmås, Director of the Fritt Ord Foundation.

The names of this year’s Laureates will be announced on 14 March, at 09:00 AM, CET (04:00 AM, EST). You can watch the announcement here: