Habermas to meet young researchers
Jürgen Habermas, this year’s Holberg Prize winner, is looking forward to meeting with some Norwegian high school students. The students have developed research projects on diverse topics such as chatting and Jorunn dialects.
The Holberg Prize will be awarded 30 November. Before the official ceremony there is an extensive programme of activities that not only includes the renowned academic winner, but that also involve 22 high school students. The students will be involved presenting the results of their research activities this autumn.
Project competition
This autumn students from twelve high schools from across Norway have immersed themselves in the theme “Youth researching youth”. A total of 31 research projects were submitted for consideration for the Holberg Prize School Project competition. Three of the projects were selected to continue to the final round of the competition. They will be presented at a workshop held in Bergen Katedralskole and a winner will be announced 30 November.
“The Holberg Prize is much more that just a ceremony and prize money,” explains Siri Breistein, who is responsible for the Holberg School Project. “Students from across Norway have become involved in the School Project. The jury for the project competition was very impressed with the presentations of the results of their research.”
The students worked together with researchers from the university and their teachers. They expressed the importance of disseminating research results. The three finalists’ projects involve two video productions and one newspaper. Their themes include the Vennesla dialect, young asylum seekers, and romance via new technology.
During their day in Bergen, the young people will not only have the opportunity to meet with Jürgen Habermas, but they will also meet Dag Trygve Thruslew Haug, who is this year’s Nils Klim winner, a companion Holberg Prize that is awarded to younger Nordic researchers.
“Habermas agreed right away to meet with these young people, and to participate in the School Project Prize awarding ceremony,” says Bodil Kjelstrup, who is the project leader for the Holberg Prize.
Making Habermas accessible
The activity programme begins with a guest lecture by Nils Klim winner, Dag Trygve Thruslew Haug, at 12:00, 28 November. (Sydneshaugen skole) The open lecture is hosted by the Ph.D. Research School in Linguistics and Philology. The Nils Klim Prize will be officially awarded later that day, at 14:00 in Knut Fægris House.
Wednesday 29 November there will be a seminar where Habermas will give a lecture entitled, “The Role of Religion in the Public Sphere”. Other speakers at the seminar, who will discuss Habermas’ work include: Cristina Lafont, Northwestern University, USA, Helge Høibraaten, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany, Thomas Schmidt, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Germany and Hauke Brunkhorst, Universität Flensburg, Germany.
Kjelstrup reports that the seminar is nearly fully booked, but she adds that it will be possible to view it on screens in the foyer outside the lecture theatre in the Law Building. As last year at the first awarding of the Holberg Prize, printed copies of the prize-winner’s lecture will also be made available for seminar participants.
The newly appointed Education and Research Minister, Øystein Djupedal will have the honour of awarding the Holberg Prize at an official ceremony 30 November.
The following week, 1-7 December, is the ninth annual Holberg week at the Grieg Academy, the Univeristy of Bergen’s (UiB’s) Department of Music. A number of UiB researchers will highlight ideas from Holberg’s essays in Moral Thinking and Epistles. There will also be a number of concerts highlighting baroque music from Holberg’s time.