Michael A. Cook, Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies, received the Holberg Prize from Norway’s HRH Crown Prince Haakon and Monica Mæland, Minister of Trade and Industry, at a ceremony held at Håkonshallen, Bergenhus Festning, Bergen, Norway, on June 4, 2014. The ceremony and Cook’s acceptance speech may be viewed at: http://www.holbergprisen.no/en.
Other events in Norway connected with the Prize included: a conversation with journalist and writer Alf van der Hagen on Cook's scholarship on the history of Islam and his latest book, Ancient Religions, Modern Politics: The Islamic Case in Comparative Perspective, on June 2; the Holberg Prize Symposium, held June 3 in Oslo, at which Cook gave the Holberg Lecture, “Monotheism and the Rise of Islam”; and a conversation with Jarle Simensen, historian and professor emeritus at the University of Oslo, on “The Long-Term Geopolitics of the Middle East.”