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St Hugh’s Fellow announced as the 2024 Vigdís Prize Laureate

Congratulations to St Hugh’s Tutorial Fellow in Experimental Psychology, Professor Asifa Majid FBA, who has been awarded the international Vigdís Prize for her outstanding contribution to world languages and cultures. The award ceremony will take place in Reykjavík, Iceland, on October 22, 2024.

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.

Asifa 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? Asifa’s 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 conceptualise and talk about domains such as space and the sense of smell, highlighting commonalities and differences in how thoughts are mapped into words. Asifa 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.