McNamee Student Essay Prize
The British Philosophy of Sport Association (BPSA) invites submissions for the McNamee Student Essay Prize in the Philosophy and Ethics of Sport. The Prize is named in honour of Prof. Mike McNamee (Swansea University and KU Leuven), founder of the BPSA, and is sponsored by BPSA and Routledge.
The BPSA Student Essay Prize is offered under the aegis of the BPSA Student Essay Prize Committee
The purpose of the Prize is to provide an opportunity and a motivation to young scholars to gain recognition as beginning researchers in philosophy of sport. The committee reserves the right to determine qualification status.
Who qualifies as a student? A student is someone who is enrolled in an academic undergrad, Master’s or PhD program at the time of submission. Individuals who (also) occupy other academic roles (e.g., postdoctoral researchers, or research assistants) will not be eligible. The student must also not hold any other academic position, either simultaneously or at a previous time.
To enter the competition: the student must present a letter from their academic supervisor or a confirmation of enrollment in their a programme, along with the submitted essay.
How are essays to be assessed? All essays will be double-blind marked, and will be evaluated by the BPSA Student Essay Prize Committee. The decision of the Committee is final.
Eligibility
Candidates must identify themselves as enrolled as a student in a university undergraduate or graduate level course at the time of submission. There is no geographical restriction on eligibility. Submissions must be single-authored and the candidate’s own work, and they must address an issue in the Philosophy or Ethics of Sport. Each candidate may submit one essay only, and submissions must be in English. A previous winner should not apply.
IMPORTANT: the essay must be a new essay. Candidates are not allowed to submit essays previously submitted as coursework (Turnitin system will check if this is the case) or submitted for another competition or published anywhere.
Criteria
Essays may address any topic in the Philosophy or Ethics of Sport. In assessing submitted papers, the jury will place a strong emphasis on the following considerations:
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Originality of the essay topic and its treatment;
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Analytical rigour of the essay’s argument;
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Critical engagement with relevant philosophical literature
The BPSA reserves the right not to award a prize if essays fail to achieve an appropriate standard. The decision of the jury is final. Candidates will not receive feedback on their submission.
To Enter
Submissions should be emailed in Word or PDF format to: marcus.campos@unesp.br with subject line ‘BPSA Essay Prize 2026’ by Wednesday, September 2th 2026, at midnight CET.
Candidates should submit two separate documents:
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Cover sheet that includes the candidate’s information (i.e. name, email address, university, and essay title);
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Essay document that is anonymized so as not to reveal the identity of the candidate.
Essay Format
Please use APA style of referencing. The word limit is 2500 words (excluding references). Please avoid footnotes/endnotes.
Prizes
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Winner – £500 cash (by bank transfer) + 100 £ voucher in Routledge books
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Runner-up – £200 cash (by bank transfer) + 100 £ voucher in Routledge books
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Commendations x 3 – each of the three commended essays will receive £100 cash (by bank transfer) + 100 £ voucher in Routledge books
The Winner and Runner-up will be invited to present their essays at a BPSA online work-in-progress seminar in the Spring of 2027 and will be encouraged to submit their papers to the the BPSA’s journal Sport, Ethics and Philosophy: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rsep20/current
For any questions, get in touch, and have fun writing!
Dr Marcus Campos
Deputy Chair British Philosophy of Sport Association
Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Education at the Institute of Biosciences