Chloe Bray

Receiving not one, but four scholarships from the Scottish University of St Andrews, has funded three years of PhD study for Otago's Classics Masters graduate Chloe Bray.

Filling in one general application to St Andrews led to a windfall of overlapping scholarships. She lists off the Worsfold Otago Scholarship, Millar-Lyell St Andrews scholarship, the St Leonards Scholarship and the 7th Century PhD Scholarship, the latter established when St Andrews celebrated its 600th year.

The funding allows Chloe to explore an intriguing theme that kept cropping up throughout her research.

“I'm studying liminal, or threshold, space in Greek literature,” Chloe says. “I'd noticed that, particularly in Tragedy, there's this anxiety about in-between spaces - between the edge of a city and wilderness, mountains and plains. Bad things always seem to happening in transitional spaces as if there were an inherent danger associated with crossing boundaries.”

Chloe says her passion for Classics reflects her years working among the enthusiastic Otago Department of Classics staff.

“I moved to Dunedin from England with my family and I looked at going back to the UK to study, but Otago gets such a good rap. After the first couple years doing Classics papers I was completely hooked. My lecturers were funny and engaging. One turned up to our first lecture on a motorcycle.

“I did my Masters at Otago because I heard you could get good PhD scholarships overseas if you had a quality Masters. It was also an easy, seamless transition because my main Honours supervisor, Dr John Garthwaite, and I had a good relationship and routine going.

“You get employment opportunities, too. I've been a tutor and research assistant all the way through my postgrad. You get treated more like a staff member.”

Chloe and husband Mike (with whom she writes songs and performs for atmospheric black metal band, Sojourner) will be arriving in Scotland in September.

Learn more about postgraduate study in the Classics