Indian scholar, literary theorist and feminist critic Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak has been awarded the 2025 Holberg Prize for her ‘groundbreaking interdisciplinary research in comparative literature, translation, postcolonial studies, political philosophy, and feminist theory’.

“The Holberg Prize—one of the largest international prizes awarded annually to an outstanding researcher in the humanities, social sciences, law or theology—named Indian scholar Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak as its 2025 Laureate,” read release of the Holberg Prize.

Spivak is a University Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University. She will receive the award of NOK 6,000,000 (approx. EUR 515,000 amounting to  ₹4,87,28,270) during a ceremony at the University of Bergen, Norway on June 5. The prize will be conferred by H R H Crown Prince Haakon of Norway.

Spivak is considered one of the most influential global intellectuals of our time, and she has shaped literary criticism and philosophy since the 1970s. 

She receives the prize for her groundbreaking interdisciplinary research in comparative literature, translation, postcolonial studies, political philosophy, and feminist theory. 

She has authored nine books and edited and translated many more. Her scholarship has been translated into well over twenty languages. She has also taught and lectured in more than fifty countries.

Voice of marginalised

Spivak’s main ethical and research focus has been on post-Hegelian philosophy, and the position of the subaltern, i.e. small social groups on the margins of history who cannot exercise their rights and whose perspectives cannot be included in generalisations about the nation-state. 

In particular, Spivak has focused on subaltern women, within both discursive practices and in cultural institutions.

As per Holberg Prize, she has been teaching for the last 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 marginalised rural communities across several countries.

Her activism and scholarship have also focussed on poverty and development in Africa, with a particular interest in the first languages unsystematised by the missionaries.

Who is laureate Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak?

82-year-old Spivak was born in colonial India in Calcutta, Bengal Province, British India.

Currently, she serves as a professor in the humanities at Columbia University.

“As a public intellectual and activist, Spivak combats illiteracy in marginalised rural communities across several countries, including in West Bengal, India where she has founded, funded and participated in educational initiatives,” Heike Krieger, the Holberg committee chair wrote.

Spivak obtained her PhD from Cornell University in 1967 after attending the University of Calcutta.

Since 2007, Spivak has been a faculty member at Columbia University and a founding figure of its Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. Over the course of her career, she has taught at more than 20 academic institutions. Her numerous accolades include the Padma Bhushan (2013), the Kyoto Prize in Art and Philosophy (2012), and the Modern Language Association Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award (2018). In addition, she has received over 50 faculty awards and holds 15 honorary doctorates from universities worldwide.

West Bengal CM lauds laureate

“I congratulate our Professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak on her attaining yet another top international recognition. She has been chosen this year for the Holberg Prize of Norway, which is considered to be a top prize in humanities and social sciences. She makes us proud by this attainment of this highest honour,” wrote West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee on Monday.

“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. Her endeavours to translate the all- time classics of Bengali literature into English constitute a project that inspires us,” she added.