The Benetton Studi Ricerche Foundation, within the framework of the research it has long promoted on play, celebration, sport and, in general, playfulness up to the outbreak of the Second World War, announces two annual prizes of 3,000 euros for unpublished essays by young scholars of any nationality.
The price, launched in 2016, is named in memory of Professor Gaetano Cozzi (1922-2001) who, since the Foundation’s inception, has promoted a special interest in research by young scholars in the above fields of study.
Having examined and assessed all the essays received last March in response to the call for entries issued in 2025 for the 2026 Prize, the Selection Committee has decided to award the 2026 Gaetano Cozzi Prize for Essays on the History of Games to Huaqing Shi and Arianna De Gasperis.
It has also decided to award two special mentions to the following scholars: Conger Wang and Giacomo Di Muccio.
The winning essays and those receiving special mentions will be published in the journal *Ludica*, vol. 32, 2026, in the section dedicated to the Gaetano Cozzi Prize.
The official award ceremony will take place in November.
winning essays
Huaqing Shi, Resistance Through Playing: Children’s Anti-Japanese Games in Chinese Communist Mobilization, 1921-1945
Arianna De Gasperis, I giochi cittadini del ‘ragazzo di strada’. Il caso Collodi (1849-1881)
special mentions
Conger Wang, Moments of Being: Redefining Leisure in the Context of Concentration Camps
Giacomo Di Muccio, Novelle per gioco e giochi di novelle. Raccontare per diletto tra xiv e xvi secolo
for information
Jury commission
Gherardo Ortalli
chairman, Istituto Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti, Venezia
Alessandro Arcangeli
Università di Verona
Maurice Aymard
École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris
Élisabeth Belmas
Université Sorbonne Paris Nord
Peter Burke
Emmanuel College, University of Cambridge
Piero Del Negro
Università di Padova
Thierry Depaulis
The International Playing-Card Society
Angela Fabris
Universität Klagenfurt
Christian Jaser
Universität Kassel
John McClelland
University of Toronto
Alessandra Rizzi
Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia
Bernd Roeck
Universität Zürich
Manfred Zollinger
Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien, 1956-2023
