Since 1996 CESH has awarded Junior/Early Career Scholar Awards for outstanding papers given by early career scholars at its International Congresses. CESH is encouraging the participation of early career scholars, the next generation of European sport historians.

Go to CESH AWARD 2024

Deadline this year is 15/05/2024

Presentation of award competition
On the occasion of its international congresses the European Committee for the History of Sport (CESH) announces an award competition for early career researchers. The aim of the award is to facilitate the integration of outstanding graduate students and early career researchers into the European community of sports and physical education history scholars. The award will be granted to a scholarly paper, single authored by an early career researcher, which is deemed by a panel of judges to be of high quality.

General organisation of competition
CESH is responsible for setting up an Award Scientific Committee for each call, whose members will review the submitted papers. This committee will consist of five to seven CESH members of which at least three CESH Fellows and two members of the Directing Council of CESH. The President of CESH is responsible for setting up the Award Scientific Committee, which must be approved by the Directing Council of CESH and by the President of the Fellows of CESH. The General Secretary of CESH will announce the scientific competition and the submission deadline for the papers well ahead of the CESH congresses.

Eligibility
Candidates must match one of the following criteria:
• Either be registered as a master or doctoral student at the time paper submission;
• or have successfully completed a doctorate no longer than 5 years prior to the paper submission deadline.

Please note that:
• Authors submitting a paper for the CESH Early Career Scholar Award competition must attend and present their paper during the CESH congress;
• Therefore, candidates must also be a CESH member for the year in which they compete;

• The applicant must not have received a CESH prize before;
• Authors will present an official document to prove their student status or a legal document indicating the award date of their doctorate.

Paper requirements

• The Committee will accept only one submission per author;
• Papers must be single-authored;
• Candidates will submit a scholarly paper on a topic that is of interest to the academic sports history community in Europe;
• Papers should not exceed 8,000 words (references included);
• Papers must be original, i.e. not already submitted elsewhere in any form;
• Papers must follow the guidelines of the CESH journal European Studies in Sports History (see http://www.cesh-site.eu/?page_id=30);
• Papers may be written in any European language.

Awards

• The winner will be announced during the congress dinner;
• The winner will receive an award during the congress dinner and a prize whose amount (in Euros) will be indicated in the competition call;
• The winner will be invited to submit his/her paper for publication in CESH’s scientific journal European Studies for Sports History;
• The winner will be granted free membership to CESH for the year after which he/she won the Early Career Scholar Award;
• The Awards Scientific Committee may also give up to two honourable mentions;
• The Awards Scientific Committee might decide to give no award if the submitted papers are not of satisfying quality;
• The name of all winning authors will be posted on the CESH website.

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Previous Award Winners

No prizes were awarded in 2022 and 2023

2021 – Lisbon, PORTUGAL

CESH Early Career Award: Lidia Lesnykh: ‘The Creation of the International University Sports Federation: The Student Cold War From 1946 to 1949’

2019 – LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND

CESH Early Career Award: Marion Philippe:  »De la Résistance intérieure à l’école de voile des Glénans : l’influence de l’action d’Hélène et Philippe Viannay en faveur de l’éducation des jeunes (1947-1982) »

2018 – BORDEAUX, FRANCE

CESH Early Career Award: Iker Ibarrondo Merino: ‘Basque athletes under fire of the Condor Legion. The ‘Culture and Sport Battalion’ during the Spanish Civil War’

2017 – STRASBOURG, FRANCE

CESH Early Career Award: Matteo Monaco: « La rinascita del Comitato Olimpico Nazionale Italiano (1943-1947) »

2016 – LEICESTER, UK

CESH Early Career Award: Erica E. Munkwitz: ‘Riding Habits: Equestrianism, Fox-Hunting, and Female Sporting Emancipation’

2015 – FLORENCE, Italy

1st: Domenico Elia, ‘A uniform for gymnastics teachers: the work of Alessandro La Pegna (1837-1898)’

2nd: Giacomo Zanibelli, “La costruzione dello stadio comunale di Siena. Sport e sviluppo economico durante il periodo fascista”

3rd: Pierre Marie, ‘Sport as a factor of democracy during the Portuguese revolutionary process’

No awards were given 2010-2014.

2009 – Pisa, Italy

1st: Alex de la Viuda Serrano, ‘The censorship of sports topic on newspapers Gol and Marca in Spain during 1942-43’

2nd: Jean-Nicolas Renaud, “La tradition: limite à la modernité sportive? L’exemple du Jura au début du XXe siècle”

3rd: Alessio Ponzio, ‘Volare necesse est. The Italian fascist and the conquest of the sky’

2008 – Gorzow, Poland

Michele Diana Award: Noemi Garcia: ‘After-school Championship Program in Madrid: Sport as Intercultural Opportunity for Young Immigrants’

2007 – Lorient, Bretagne, France

Michele Diana Award: Stephanie L. Hamilton, University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada & Brice Monier, UFR STAPS, Besançon, France

CESH Host University Junior Scholar Award (donated by Université de Bretagne-Sud, Lorient): Cathal Kilcline, National University of Ireland, Galway, Irland

 

2006 – Vienna, Austria

Michele Diana Award: David Ranc, University of Cambridge, UK

‘Città di Crotone’ Award: Jacek Rzepka, University of Warsaw, Poland

Junior Scholar Award by the Austrian Olympic Committee: Martin Johnes, University of Swansea, UK

Junior Scholar Award by Sports Division of the Austrian Federal Chancellery: Marion Fontaine, Chatillon, France

Alma Mater Rudolphina Award: Kai Reinhart, University of Münster, Germany

2005 – Sevilla, Spain

COLEF Andalucia Award I: Gonzalo Ramìrez Macìas

COLEF Andalucia Award II: Fred Mason, University of Leicester, United Kingdom

Michele Diana Award: Carlos Gutierrez Garcìa, University of Murcia, Spain

Gabbiano di Crotone Award: Elena Tonezzer, University of Trento, Italy

2004 – Crotone, Italy

Michele Di Donato Award: Valentina Marone, Università di Roma Tor Vergata, Italia

Daniele Paz Award: Zrinko Custonja & Srecko Mavrek, University of Zagreb, Institute for Sport Science & Karl-Franz-University Graz, Faculty of Kinesiology, Croatia – Austria

Romano Pontisso Award: Sarah Morgan, University of Sydney, Australia

Peace Weaves Award: Fabio Chisari, De Montfort University, Leicester/Università di Catania, UK-Italia

2003 – Olimpia, Greece

The Nachtegall Junior-Scholar Award: Daphné Bolz, UFR STAPS, Marc Bloch University, Strasbourg

Michele Di Donato Award I: Barbara Rieger, German Sport University Cologne

Michele Di Donato Award II: Agapi Mantziori, Democritus University of Thrace

Lancillotto e Nausica Award: Nicolas Choutas, Democritus University of Thrace

2002 – Besançon, France

The Nachtegall Junior-Scholar Award: Bettina Kratzmüller, University of Vienna

Michele Di Donato Award: Michel Libal, Université de Lausanne

2001 – Göttingen, Germany

The Nachtegall Junior-Scholar Award: Annette Hofmann, University of Münster

Michele Di Donato Award I: Stephan Wassong, Deutsche Sporthochschule Köln

Michele Di Donato Award II: Amichai Alperovich, Hebrew University, Jerusalem

2000 – Madrid, Spain

The Nachtegall Junior-Scholar Award: David Imhoof, University of Texas, Austin

Michele Di Donato Award: Pedro Pablo Zorilla Sanz, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

1999 – Florence, Italy

The Nachtegall Junior-Scholar Award: Barbara Keys, Harvard University

Michele Di Donato Award: Mike Cronin, De Montfort University, Leicester

1998 – Copenhagen, Denmark

The Nachtegall Junior-Scholar Award: Thierry Terret, Université Lyon I / Roberta Vescovi , ISEF Urbino

Michele Di Donato Award I: Antje Fenner, Georg-August Universität Göttingen

Michele Di Donato Award II: Thomas Svovgaard, Southern Denmark University, Odense

1997 – Katowice, Poland

Michele Di Donato Award I: André Gounot, FU Berlin

Michele Di Donato Award II: Harald Oelrich, Westfälische Wilhems-Universität Münster

Michele Di Donato Award III: Swantje Scharenberg, Georg-August Universität Göttingen

1996 – Rome, Italy

Michele Di Donato Award I: André Gounot, FU Berlin

Michele Di Donato Award II: Harald Oelrich, Westfälische Wilhems-Universität Münster

Michele Di Donato Award III: Christian Vivier, Université de Franche-Comté, Besançon

One Award is named after Michele Di Donato (1915 – 1990), a major Italian and European Sport Historian. For thirty-five year he taught sport history at the ISEF in Rome, was responsible for its journal and researched Italian sport history from antiquity onward. He was one of the few sport historians who could really claim to be universal – and not specialists for particular time periods or themes. The price is sponsored by his friends from the Centro Studi per l’educazione fisica e lo sport of Florence. In the last two year this Centre offered an award in the honor of Michele Diana (1926-2004), historians from Florence, CESH fellow, President of the CESH Congress in Florence in 1999. He was also editor of great works in history of the Art and local history.

The other price in the years 1998 till 2003 was named after Franz Nachtegall (1777 – 1847), the Danish and European gymnastics pioneer, who established the first gymnastics institute in Denmark and was instrumental in providing gymnastics in the Danish schools for the children of the common people already in 1814 (earlier than any place else in Europe). As early as 1799 he founded a gymnastics institute in Copenhagen, the first in Europe to prepare physical education teachers. Nachtegall is at the root of Danish but also of European gymnastics and physical education. The price is sponsored by the Danish Gymnastics Federation.

In 2004 CESH wished to remember Daniele Paz, a student at the Universitad Politécnica di Madrid, who had attended our previous congresses, a victim of the 2004 March 11 bombings in Madrid.

Other Joung Scholar Awards was dedicated to: Romano Pontisso, cycling champion, many-times member of the national team, winner in Berlin in the pre-Olympic competition (1936). Gold Medal for Sports Valour of CONI. Responsible for 40 years for the Roman session of national athletes.

The Michele Diana Award is donated by Paolo Allegretti in memory of his father and by the Centro Studi per l’educazione fisica e l’attività sportiva in Florence in memory of Michele Diana.

Peace Waves, a non-profit association that works with youth using sport, art and music.