Prestigious Prix Mondial Nessim Habif awarded to Professor emerita Griselda Pollock
World-renowned art historian and cultural theorist Professor emerita Griselda Pollock has been presented with the Prix Mondial Nessim Habif 2024 by the University of Geneva.
The Prix Mondial Nessim Habif is awarded to an internationally-renowned academic who has offered a major contribution to their field – through particularly original and in-depth thinking and work in the fields of the hard, medical or human sciences.
Griselda Pollock is Professor emerita of Social and Critical Histories of Art in the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. Pollock lectured at the university from 1977 until her retirement in 2021, achieving her Personal Chair in 1990. She was formerly the Director of the Centre for Cultural Studies and, in 2001, founding Director of the Centre for Cultural Analysis, Theory and History (CentreCATH).
Challenging the exclusivity of gender and race in both artistic representation and in Art History, she has developed concepts for a postcolonial, international, queer and feminist analysis of visual art and culture. Her scholarly publications include sixteen major books, many edited and co-edited collections, numerous articles and several exhibitions.
A critical interpreter of the myth of male genius in the case of Van Gogh, she has written extensively on art created by women through the ages. These include modern and contemporary artists such as Mary Cassatt, Charlotte Salomon, Lee Krasner, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Mary Kelly and Bracha Ettinger and Leeds graduate Sutapa Biswas.
Professor emerita Griselda Pollock accepts the Prix Mondial Nessim Habif at the University of Geneva's Dies academicus annual ceremony, 2024. Photo: Giovanna Zapperi.
Griselda Pollock was honoured with the Prix Mondial Nessim Habif 2024 at the University of Geneva’s annual Dies academicus on 11 October.
Her extensive feminist writings on art, cinema and visual culture over fifty years were commended specifically for inciting profound reflection on the psychological violence that has been inflicted on women through patriarchal representations. Griselda was also commended for establishing and analysing the long history of women’s creativity in the arts.
While in Geneva, Pollock delivered a public lecture titled Feminist Thought, ‘Artworking’ and Critical Humanities in the Dystopic Present. She also spoke at the Swiss launch of the recent French translation of her seminal 1981 book, Old Mistresses: Women, Art & Ideology, co-authored with the late Rozsika Parker.
Pollock was previously awarded the Holberg Prize in 2020, an international prize awarded annually by the government of Norway to outstanding scholars for work in the arts, humanities, social sciences, law and theology, either within one of these fields or through interdisciplinary work.
She has twice been recognized by the College Art Association (USA) for her feminist scholarship and for a lifetime achievement in writing on art.
Professor emerita Griselda Pollock. Image © University of Leeds.
The Prix Mondial Nessim Habif ward was presented to Griselda Pollock by Mme Anne Hiltpold (Conseillère d’Etat chargée du Département de l’instruction publique, de la formation et de la jeunesse, Université de Genève).
In her speech, Anne Hiltpold commented on the role that the totality of Pollock’s many publications have made in the analysis of the real and psychological violence against women, highlighting that they would remain engraved in all our disciplines across the humanities.
Griselda Pollock said:
“I was so honoured to receive this prize from such a historic university.
“I dedicated the prize to all the women of all countries and peoples who share our struggle for the humanity, dignity, safety and creativity of women worldwide.”
More information
Watch a recording of Griselda Pollock’s Holberg Lecture from 2021, ‘Art, Thought and Difficulty’.
Watch the University of Geneva’s 2024 Dies academicus ceremony. The presentation of the Prix Mondial Nessim Habif to Griselda Pollock begins at 1:28:00.
Feature image
Professor emerita Griselda Pollock receiving the Prix Mondial Nessim Habif award from the Deputy Vice Chancellor at the University of Geneva’s annual Dies academicus on 11 October 2024. Screenshot from online recording of the ceremony © University of Geneva.
