Awards and Prizes

Undergraduate Dissertation Prize

The 2025 GLTRG Undergraduate Dissertation Award offers a prize of £60 for the best dissertation in the fields of leisure, tourism, and sports geographies. Applicants enrolled at or being awarded a Bachelor’s’ Degree (BA, BSc or BEd) at a UK-based University are invited to submit their work for consideration.

The dissertation may be multidisciplinary and include other fields in the natural and social sciences, but needs to be informed through the geographical concepts of place and space. The dissertation will be assessed by members of the GLTRG Committee. The GLTRG Committee will select the best dissertation for the award and identify two Highly Commended dissertations, with the students receiving a certificate to reflect the achievement.

A per submission instructions please note that:

Departments can only support one student dissertation entry
Entries should be accompanied by a copy of the instructions given to students, a note of the dissertation credit rating and the mark awarded
The student shall provide the current University email address as well as a personal one to be notified of the results of the competition.

The deadline for submissions is 15th July, 2025. Submission should be via the RGS-IBG submission portal (in development, with link coming soon). Please contact Dr Anna de Jong (GLTRG Prizes and Award Co-Ordinator) at anna.dejong@glasgow.ac.uk, if you have any questions.

The outcome of the evaluation will be communicated by the end of November 2025. The Awardee and the Commended students will be notified by email.

Postgraduate Dissertation Prize

The Geographies of Leisure and Tourism Research Group is offering a £100 prize for an outstanding Masters dissertation in leisure/tourism/sports geography, submitted as part of a MA or MSc degree.

The dissertation will be assessed by members of the GLTRG Committee. The GLTRG Committee will select the best dissertation for the award and identify two Highly Commended dissertations, with the students receiving a certificate to reflect the achievement.

Eligibility:

Postgraduate students at any institution across the world are eligible to submit but the dissertation should be written in (or translated professionally to) English.
The dissertation needs to have already received a first class/distinction/outstanding classification.
The dissertation may be multidisciplinary and include other fields in the natural and social sciences but needs to be informed through the geographical concepts of place and space.
The prize is open to both current and former postgraduate students at Masters level. In order to be eligible for the prize, former postgraduate students must have submitted a Masters dissertation no earlier than 12 months before the prize deadline.

Submission process:

Submissions should be made by the student in pdf format with an appropriate research supervisor copied into the email.
Entries should be accompanied by a copy of the instructions given to the student, a note of the dissertation marking scheme and the mark awarded.
The student should provide the current University email address, as well as a personal, to ensure the student can be notified of the results of the competition.

For any further details or questions please contact Dr Anna de Jong using the details below.

Submissions to: Dr Anna de Jong (anna.dejong@glasgow.ac.uk)

Deadline: 2nd February, 2026

Postgraduate Dissertation Prize Winners

2025 Award Winner:

Our latest winner is Ana Gabriela Da Cruz Fontoura, for their thesis entitled:

”Community-based tourism in the Brazilian Amazon: a look through the lens of post-development geographies”

Ana Gabriela submitted the dissertation as part of a MA in Local Development at the University of Padua, Italy.

Responding to the news, Ana Gabriela shared:

“I am deeply honoured to have been awarded the 2025 PGT Dissertation Prize by the GLTRG of the Royal Geographical Society. This recognition means a great deal to me, and I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to tourism geography studies through my dissertation on ‘Community-based tourism in the Brazilian Amazon: a look through the lens of post-development geographies’.

It is important to acknowledge that this award truly belongs to the local communities in the Brazilian Amazon, in particular the Movimento de Mulheres das Ilhas de Belém (MMIB) and the Associação de Produtores Orgânicos de Boa Vista do Acará (APOBV). They are the heart of my research, and it is their resilience, creativity, knowledge, trust, and commitment to a pluriversal understanding of tourism that has made this work possible. Communities are the ones driving change and shaping the future of community-based tourism in Brazil, and this recognition is a testament to their continued efforts.

I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to my supervisor, Dr. Mariasole Pepa, and to the coordinator Dr. Chiara Rabbiosi, from the Master’s in Local Development at the University of Padua (UNIPD). I am immensely grateful to all my professors, from kindergarten onwards, as well as to my family and friends, who have brought me this far. I dedicate this GLTRG Prize to the communities whose stories and aspirations have inspired this research and my belief in the power of collectivity and in the value of multiple ways of being in the world.”

2024 Award Winner:

Our 2024 winner was Fransiska Wuri Nugrahani, for their thesis entitled:

”Analysing the natural seasonality pattern in Edinburgh and Kirkwall in Scotland, and Reykjavik in Iceland from 2012 to 2022 through the holiday climate index”

Fransiska submitted the dissertation as part of a MSc Sustainable Tourism and Global Challenges at University of Glasgow.

Responding to the news, Fransiska shared:

“First of all, I can’t express how much this means to me. This research journey has been a real rollercoaster of trying to make sense of how climate and tourism dance together in these incredible places. Whether it was digging into the nitty-gritty of the Holiday Climate Index (the basic data has been provided by Meteoblue) or soaking up the vibes during an expedition cruise with Adventure Canada, every step has been a bit of a wild ride.

I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to the GLTRG for this honor. And, of course, to everyone who’s been there for me – your support has meant the world. A special shoutout to Dr Lizanne Henderson, my amazing supervisor and the program director of Sustainable Tourism and Global Challenge at the University of Glasgow – your guidance has been like a lighthouse in the fog.

This award is not just about me; it’s a nod to the hours of puzzling over data, the stumbling blocks, and the lessons learned. I’m eager to keep contributing to this field that I love, and I’m genuinely touched to be part of a community that celebrates the messy and marvelous journey of research.”

2023 Award Winner:

Our 2023 PGT winner was Kivilcim Göksu Torak, for their thesis entitled:

“Istanbul’s lost leisure spaces as collective memory of superstructures: (re)learning from Mesires and Plajs to overcome the social polarization”

Kivilcim submitted the dissertation as part of a MA Architecture and Historic Urban Environments at University College London.

Responding to the news, Kivilcim shared:

“I am very honoured to receive the GLTRG 2023 PGT Dissertation Prize for my thesis “Istanbul’s Lost Leisure Spaces as Collective Memory Superstructures”. Having my research on collective memories, everyday spatial narratives, and organic conflict resolution recognized by a community of researchers like GLTRG gives me great motivation, encouragement, and excitement. I would like to take this chance to express my gratitude once again. I also would like to thank for the unmatching support I received from the MAHUE team at The Bartlett School of Architecture and especially my supervisor Dr Lakshmi Priya Rajendran.

In a setting where social and environmental conflicts affect our daily lives immensely, it was thrilling to get the chance to study the concepts of identity, memory, and conflict-resolution based on the collective memories of leisure spaces and arbitrary daily encounters. With the recognition I receive from GLTRG, the hope and motivation I carry to contribute to the development of organic conflict-resolution mechanisms by acknowledging, proliferating, and opening space for public spaces and everyday hidden narratives is heightened. I hope that my thesis can bring attention to the ways urban spatial settings are narrated and to the opportunities that acknowledging multiple narratives can propose for creating more inclusive environments.”

2022 Award Winner:

Our 2022 PGT winner was Rebecca Gormley, for the thesis entitled:

“(B)ordering backpacking: the influence of Instagram on the gendered nature of travel and mobility”

Rebecca submitted this work as part of a Master of Science, at Cardiff University.

Responding to the news of the win, Rebecca shared:

‘Receiving this award means so much particularly due to the context I wrote the Dissertation in. I wanted to investigate the ways that use of the social media platform Instagram was shaping the gendered nature of international backpacking, but of course I was faced with doing this at a time where travel was restricted. This led me to innovate in my method to create a nuanced way to research Instagram as a tourism ‘stage’, and experiment with categories of ‘identities’, ‘ideologies’ and ‘itineraries’ to frame performance upon it. This enabled me to attend to the gendered discourses embedded within Insta-backpacking and extrapolate how social media more generally is shaping the evolution of travel and tourism. Writing this piece was a huge personal and academic achievement and I am honoured to have this work recognized by the Royal Geographic Society. Finally, I would like to express an enormous amount of gratitude to my dissertation supervisor, Professor Jon Anderson, as without his guidance and support this project would not have been possible.’

Undergraduate Dissertation Prize Winners

2024 Award Winner:

Our latest winner is Rhiannon Ford-Bailey, for the thesis entitled:

‘Flexing Femininity: A study into the relationship between performances of femininity and athleticism’

Rhiannon submitted this work as part of a Bachelor of Arts in Geography, at the University of Exeter.

Responding to the news of the win, Rhiannon shared:

‘I am so grateful to be recognised by the Royal Geographical Society for my contribution towards the field of sports geographies and for everything that completing my dissertation has taught me. I’d also like to thank all of my academic tutors for their support, as well as all of the strong and inspirational women who took part in my research.

This dissertation on the relationship between femininity and athleticism has allowed me to utilise the skills I have developed during my geography degree and produce research that serves to widen the scope of literature surrounding women who challenge binary conceptualisations of gender. This award has also given me the confidence to continue my focus on gender performance within my postgraduate studies.’

2022 Award Winner:

Our 2022 winner was Stewart Bennett, for the thesis entitled:

‘Exploring masculinities in mixed sports teams at a UK university’

Stewart submitted this work as part of a Bachelor of Science in Geography, at the University of Southampton.

Responding to the news of the win, Stewart shared:

‘I’m thrilled that the award committee has recognised my dissertation with this award. I was very lucky to have had the support of the Dr Eleanor Wilkinson as my dissertation supervisor, who allowed me to really develop my ideas. I’d like to thank her, alongside all the participants of my research, without whom I couldn’t have completed this dissertation.

Mixed sports teams have often been overlooked by literature, and by university sport bodies in general. However for me, personally, they played a huge part in my university experience and my relationship with sport. I hope my dissertation can serve to widen academic focus into areas of leisure when genders mix together. This award has really given me confidence that there is value in studying masculinities, and that there is scope for studying their impact on gendered bodies.’

2021 Award Winner:

Our 2021 was Holly Hodgson, for the thesis entitled:

‘Jography: runners’ perspectives of contested mobility’

Holly submitted this work as part of a Bachelor of Arts in Human Geography, at Edge Hill University.

Responding to the news of the win, Holly shared:

‘First and foremost, I would like to thank the committee for this award and for their recognition of my work on the contested mobilities of runners. I must also extend the same gratitude and thanks to my dissertation supervisor, Dr Simon Dickinson.

My research took place during the COVID-19 pandemic which meant I was forced to adapt my project to lockdown and social distancing measures, and I am humbled that the committee felt that my dissertation was still able to make strong contributions to current understandings of sports and leisure geographies. This award has given me the confidence to start the process of preparing my dissertation for publication and spurred my enthusiasm in running geographies as I continue my postgraduate studies at the University of Birmingham.’

2020 Award Winner:

Our 2020 winner was Eliza Hilleary, for her thesis entitled:

“’Skye ain’t no wilderness’: Local Residents Negotiate Living in a Tourist Destination”

Eliza submitted her work as part of her MA in Geography at the University of Edinburgh.

Responding to the news of her win, Eliza shared:

‘I really enjoyed doing my dissertation and I am so pleased that the committee felt that my dissertation made a strong contribution to tourism geographies. I could never have done it without all the amazing people on Skye who let me interview them and gave me a taste for the Highland humour.’