Dipesh Chakrabarty

Dipesh Chakrabarty is awarded the 46th European Essay Prize on the occasion of the French translation of his essay The climate of history in a planetary age (University of Chicago Presse 2021). [Après le changement climatique, penser l’histoire, Paris, Gallimard, 2023, translated from English by Aude de Saint Loup and Pierre-Emmanuel Dauzat].

Photo © Alan Thomas

The jury of the European Essay Prize wishes to pay tribute to this highly valuable essay, which provides a better understanding of our era and our responsibility in this world of climatic change. The jury particularly appreciated the global approach of this work, and the fact that reading it transforms and enables a new perception of time, and therefore of history. The jury also emphasized the politicization of the earth described by Dipesh Chakrabarty.

This essay highlights the change in the historical discipline itself, the change in human’s relationship to time and the world, and ultimately the change in the human condition.

—Award Ceremony
—European Essay Prize Round Table
—Media – Press Release

European Essay Prize Award Ceremony

—Lecture
Dipesh Chakrabarty
Laureate of the European Essay Prize 2024

—Text in english (PDF)

—Texte en français (PDF)

—Laudatio
Patrice Maniglier
Philosopher, Paris Nanterre University

—Text in english (PDF)

—Texte en français (PDF)

—Presentation Speech
Jacques Zwahlen
Member of the jury of the European Essay Prize

—Text in english (PDF)

—Texte en français (PDF)

—Introduction
Christelle Fourlon-Kouayep
Editor at Gallimard Publishing

—Welcome speech
Cyril Veillon
President of the jury of the European Essay Prize and of the Charles Veillon Foundation

Photo ©Sylvain Chabloz - Prix Européen de l'Essai

Photo ©Solène Hoffmann - Prix Européen de l'Essai

European Essay Prize Round Table

Dipesh Chakrabarty, laureate of the European Essay Prize, discusses with Valérie Boisvert (Institute of Geography and Sustainability, University of Lausanne), Rahel Kunz (Institute of Political Studies, University of Lausanne), Ola Söderström (Institute of Geography, University of Neuchâtel).
Moderator: Francesco Panese (member of the jury of the European Essay Prize, Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lausanne).
Welcome by Vincent Baudriller, Director of the Théâtre Vidy-Lausanne and Cyril Veillon, President of the Charles Veillon Foundation.

In partnership with Université de Lausanne and Théâtre de Vidy.

Couverture Prix Européen de l'Essai 2024

”Can Homo sapiens learn to be Homo prudens, whatever the political battles that divide us? I should clarify that a project that seeks to understand human loss of reverence for the world they found themselves in is not a project of renouncing the moral courage that humans have always needed in their struggles against various form of domination and exploitation, including those that have been made possible by modern human’s profligate use of fossil fuels. Indeed, such moral courage can easily coexist with the spirit of reverence.”

Dipesh Chakrabarty