Jørgensen will be awarded the 2025 Swedish Gad Rausing Prize for her groundbreaking research in environmental history and the environmental humanities. The Prize is worth 1.5 million kroner.
– Dolly Jørgensen contributes in creative ways to new and important understandings of people's place in nature, from both modern and historical perspectives. "She has shown that interdisciplinary collaboration led by humanities researchers can help us to understand crises that, for example, threaten biodiversity and other environmental challenges," says Lars Berglund, spokesperson for the Nordic Rausing Committee.
Read more about the Gad Rausing Prize awarded to Dolly Jørgensen (in Swedish) on the webpage of The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities.
Outstanding humanities research
The Prize is worth 1 million Swedish kronor and is awarded every year to a Nordic researcher, who can demonstrate outstanding research within the humanities. The Prize is awarded by The Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, which is a scientific society for the humanities in Sweden.
"The Prize shows that researchers in the humanities in the North can also be world-leading. The nearly 20 years I have worked at universities in Norway and Sweden has made it possible for me not just to undertake high-quality research on my own part, but also to chart new directions for a whole field of research," says Dolly Jørgensen who sees the Prize as a great recognition of environmental history and the environmental humanities.
"Researchers who study people's relationship to nature from an interdisciplinary and historical perspective, are essential if we are to meet the huge challenges facing the world today," Jørgensen points out.
The representation of extinct species in museums
Jørgensen has, among other things, studied the histories of extinction and reintroduction of animals. She and her colleagues have investigated how natural history museums choose to display extinct animals and what stories are told about them.
Her research shows that these displays are often flawed.
Read about one of Jørgensen's current projects on forsking.no: There are only four South-African Bluebucks left. All of them are stuffed (in Norwegian).
The fourth Norwegian researcher
Three Norwegian researchers have received the Prize before: in 2013, Jan Terje Faarlund (Oslo) was awarded the Prize. Two years later, the Prize was awarded to Sverre Bagge (Bergen), and in 2023 to Helge Jordheim (Oslo).
Jørgensen will attend the ceremony in Stockholm on 20th March.
Tekst: Karen Anne Okstad, Avdeling for kommunikasjon og samfunnskontakt