Awards and Prizes

Undergraduate Dissertation Prize

The 2023 GLTRG Undergraduate Dissertation Award offers a prize of £100 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 14 July 2023. Please submit the dissertation and the aforementioned information to the attention of Dr Jennifer Holland (GLTRG Secretary) at gltrg.rgs@gmail.com.

The outcome of the evaluation will be communicated by the end of October 2023. The Awardee and the Commended students will be notified by email.

Postgraduate Dissertation Prize

The 2023 GLTRG Undergraduate Dissertation Award offers a prize of £100 for the best taught Masters dissertation in leisure/tourism/sports geography, submitted as part of a Ma or MSc degree at a UK-based University.

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 to be confirmed. Follow us on Twitter for updates

Postgraduate Dissertation Prize Winners

2022 Award Winner:

Our first and latest PGT winner (2022) is 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

2022 Award Winner:

Our latest winner is 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.’