Gunnar W. Knutsen

Professor of early modern history at the University of Bergen.
Working on AI and historical databases.
Witchcraft trials, crime, Inquisition.

[The Holberg Prize @HolbergPrize]

"No lever vi i ei postprint-tid, og eg meiner å sjå ei tilbakevending til ein gammal kultur der det trykte ikkje lenger er autoritativt, men det som går frå munn til munn. I dag synest influensarar i aukande grad å vere dei folk trur på", sier Holbergprisvinner Lyndal Roper til Dag og Tid. (Betalingsmur.)

https://t.co/JpfYFSP5d6

[Peter Sarris @peter_sarris]

When I was appointed in 2000, I had to fill in a form identifying my ethnicity. A few years later I received a letter from HR: ‘Dear Dr Sarris, your ethnic identity is no longer valid. Please choose a new one.’ I felt like a Roman in sixth-century Frankia.

[Gunnar W. Knutsen @guknu]

It was an honour and a pleasure to interview Lyndal Roper. She is the kindest, most generous colleague imaginable.

[The Holberg Prize @HolbergPrize]

While the Holberg Week officially starts this evening, activities are already well under way. Here, Professor Gunnar Winsnes Knutsen has just finished interviewing Holberg Laureate Lyndal Roper for the Holberg Conversation. The interview will be broadcast on Norwegian TV in the autumn and subsequently published on YouTube.

For all this week's events, see:
https://t.co/FvvJipwhUF

[Gunnar W. Knutsen @guknu]

@t_homas_mach @AstroJake You may well be right. It also makes me question how they handle their relationship with their students.

[Gunnar W. Knutsen @guknu]

I struggle to imagine submitting a paper without knowing every reference. Historians sweat every detail, and these guys think it’s onerous to check that the articles they reference even exist!

[Luca Dellanna @DellAnnaLuca]

The reactions of many researchers on finally being held responsible for having read the very paper they submitted are... something.

[Gunnar W. Knutsen @guknu]

This is incredible. I find the argument completely unconvincing.

[Sergio Uribe @sergiouribe]

I just read this in a paper: Data availability The dataset is very extensive and not directly relevant to the reader. #opendata

[Gunnar W. Knutsen @guknu]

@BioLayne Impressive!

[Mac @GoodPoliticGuy]

The US president is praising Allah and Iran is defending the Pope, welcome to 2026

[Gunnar W. Knutsen @guknu]

Least surprising map of the day

[Simon Kuestenmacher @simongerman600]

I’ve never seen a map that makes more sense.

[Gunnar W. Knutsen @guknu]

Me parto de risa

[P. Duchement @PDuchement]

He introducido un regalito en el enunciado de un trabajo que he marcado a mi alumnado: Una única frase, pero escrita con letra blanca sobre fondo blanco (difícilmente visible para ellos, pero accesible si copias y pegas en un prompt).

Y… me lo estoy pasando pipa corrigiendo.

[The Holberg Prize @HolbergPrize]

The 2026 Holberg Week takes place in Bergen from 1 to 4 June. Join us in celebration of Holberg Laureate Lyndal Roper, the Nils Klim Laureate Majse Lind, and the Holberg School Programme prize recipients.

See the full programme: https://t.co/a0MWItBgy5

[The Holberg Prize @HolbergPrize]

Lyndal Roper has made history as the first Australian awarded the Holberg Prize — who is she?

https://t.co/BiLN89Tp3r

[james hawkins @james406]

110-year-old Turkish grandma shares her secret to a long life:

"i never once used Microsoft Teams"

[Arvind Narayanan @random_walker]

AI agents seem to be killing the ability to do cold outreach. Look at it from my perspective — someone who gets dozens of unsolicited invitations/requests in my email from strangers every day. In the past there used to be a sharp distinction between unpersonalized mass emails and those that were meant specifically for me. My spam filter could mostly automate this classification, and it even when it didn't, it would take me only a few seconds to tell if an email was worth reading/responding to. Now the distinction is gone because it is trivial to use AI to send out mass emails that appear deeply knowledgeable about each recipient's work and expertise. I guess we have to go back to the bad old days of needing to be "introduced" to someone before communicating with them.

[Bjørn Johan Berger @bjornberger]

Peter Frølich har gjort en helt enestående innsats: I tillegg til å generere stor materiell støtte til Ukraina, har han åpnet dører og vært en rollemodell for folk i nærings- og samfunnsliv. Han fortjener all den rosen han kan få.

https://t.co/SoogfrpSxb

[Ethan Mollick @emollick]

Never been a better time to study the humanities:
1) LLMs are trained on the cultural history of all humans, knowing that helps you use them
2) The humanities gives us context in this odd moment in history
3) Books & stuff are good
Wrote this 3 years ago: https://t.co/7WrT6Jbhyw

[The Holberg Prize @HolbergPrize]

The 2026 Nils Klim Prize is awarded to Danish psychologist Majse Lind of Aalborg University for her interdisciplinary research into mental health, with particular focus on disorders among young people and older adults.

https://t.co/6h8DT425fA

[The Holberg Prize @HolbergPrize]

Hvem er årets mottager av Holbergprisen? Les professor Gunnar Winsnes Knutsens kronikk i Aftenposten.

https://t.co/nGzrAzn2qX