American-Canadian historian wins Norway's Holberg Prize

OSLO — American-Canadian historian Natalie Zemon Davis was on Tuesday named the winner of the Holberg Prize, a Norwegian award for scholarly work in the arts and humanities, social sciences, law and theology.

Davis, 81, thus became the second consecutive professor at the University of Toronto to win the prize after her colleague at the school Canadian philosopher Ian Hacking won the award last year.

She "is one of the most creative historians writing today, an intellectual who is not hostage to any particular school of thought or politics," the prize committee said in a statement.

Davis, who specialises in modern European history and who has written several works on 16th and 17th century France, was hailed for her "imaginative approach to history".

That, "coupled with intensive archival research, makes the past come alive," the prize committee said, adding that "her fundamental method is to pursue a dialogue between the past and the present."

"The uniqueness of her work lies in connecting early modern Europe with new areas of comparative history, exploring cultural, geographical and religious interchange," it said.

Davis has taught at a range of prestigious universities, including Yale, Princeton and Berkeley in the US, Oxford in Britain and Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in France.

The prize, created in memory of 18th century Danish-Norwegian academic and playwright Ludvig Holberg, is worth 550,000 euros (754,000 dollars).