Zach Bigalke is a UO alumnus who earned his bachelor of arts and master of arts degrees in the Department of History. Now a PhD student at Penn State University, Bigalke has just received the 2020 Robert K. Barney Graduate Essay Award from the Center for Sociocultural Sport and Olympic Research at California State University, Fullerton.

This international prize is awarded annually to one graduate student (Masters or Doctoral candidates) who submits the most outstanding piece of original research in the area of Olympic studies.

Zach Bigalke’s paper, a study on foreign-born athletes in the Winter Olympics from 1924 to the present, was considered by the award committee “fascinating, clearly organized, and crisply written.” As part of the award, the CSSOR will fund Bigalke’s travel, accommodations, and registration to the center’s annual conference, where he will present his scholarship in a special session.

Bigalke has also written an essay on soccer in Oregon prior to World War I, which will be published later this year in an anthology on the early history of soccer in the United States.

Join us in congratulating Zach Bigalke on his achievements and successful academic career.