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RUV - Ragnar Visage
The Vigdís Prize is awarded annually by the Icelandic government, the University of Iceland, and the Vigdís International Centre for Multilingualism and Intercultural Understanding, UNESCO Cat. 2 Centre, in honor of Her Excellency Ms. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir, former President of Iceland (1980–1996) and current UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Languages. The Prize spotlights exceptional achievements in the promotion of cultural and linguistic diversity, multilingualism, and translation.
Professor Majid receives the 2024 Vigdís Prize for breaking ground in research on the relationship between language, culture, and cognition. Which aspects of cognition are universal, and which are language or culture specific? How does language influence thought? Her research addresses these questions through innovative laboratory experiments, in-depth linguistic studies and field work in diverse cultures. She has made important contributions to research on how people conceptualize and talk about domains such as space and the sense of smell, highlighting commonalities and differences in how thoughts are mapped into words.
Professor Majid has championed linguistic diversity and cautioned against over-reliance on English in research on the human mind. She has also stressed the value of diverse perspectives and inclusion in science.
Previous awardees of the Vigdís Prize include Anne Carson (2023), Canadian poet and classicist, Juergen Boos (2022), the President and CEO of the Frankfurt Book Fair, Katti Frederiksen (2021), a Greenlandic linguist, writer and politician, and Jonhard Mikkelsen (2020), a Faroese linguist, teacher and publisher.