Meet Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, Indian Scholar Wins 2025 Holberg Prize

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, a Kolkata-born literary theorist, has been named the 2025 Holberg Prize winner in Norway, adding another feather to her cap. She has been recognised for her “groundbreaking interdisciplinary research in comparative literature, translation, postcolonial studies, political philosophy, and feminist theory," the award committee said.

Spivak will receive the award in June 2025. “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.

“For Spivak, rigorous creativity must intersect with local initiatives to provide alternatives to intellectual colonialism,” their citation added. “Spivak’s work challenges readers, students, and researchers to ‘train the imagination’ through a sustained study of literature and culture.”

The international award includes a cash prize of $540,000 and is annually awarded to researchers in humanities, social sciences, law or theology. It is funded by the Norwegian government and managed by the University of Bergen on behalf of the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research.

Who Is Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak?

Born on February 24, 1942, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is considered one of the "most influential global intellectuals” in the postcolonial world. She studied at Presidency College, Kolkata, under the University of Calcutta (1959). She pursued a postgraduation in English and Comparative Literature from Cornell University.

Spivak is presently a professor in the humanities at Columbia University and is a founding member of the establishment's Institute for Comparative Literature and Society. She has written nine thorough books and edited or translated several others. Her research has been translated into over 20 languages.

Spivak’s work mainly delves into the plight of the 'subalterns,' or social groups marginalised in history. Her 1988 essay, Can the Subaltern Speak? is recognised as a foundational text in postcolonial subaltern studies. She has focused on subaltern women within political and cultural institutions.

Throughout her distinguished career, Spivak has profoundly impacted comparative literature, translation, postcolonial studies, political philosophy, and feminist theory. She is credited with introducing the term “planetarity,” in her book Death of a Discipline (2003), referring to a concept that transcends the limitations of globalisation.

Spivak also coined the term "strategic essentialism", referring to a sort of temporary solidarity for social action. More of her bold and influential works include Critique of Postcolonial Reason (1999), An Aesthetic Education in the Era of Globalisation (2012), and Ethics and Politics in Tagore, Coetzee and Certain Scenes of Teaching (2018).

Since 1986, Spivak has been teaching and training landless illiterates on the border of West Bengal, Bihar, and Jharkhand. She has also established the Pares Chandra and Sivani Chakravorty Memorial Foundation for Rural Education, named after her parents, to which she contributed the majority of her Kyoto Prize.