Search for historical truth
English, history graduate is first UofSC recipient of Barry Scholarship to study at Oxford
Posted on: June 14, 2021; Updated on: June 14, 2021
By Page Ivey, pivey@mailbox.sc.edu, 803-777-2085
Allie Trice was an outstanding undergraduate student at the University of South Carolina, excelling in class and conducting publishable research. But a dedication to the pursuit of truth is even more important for the university’s first recipient of the Barry Scholarship, which opened the door to graduate school at the University of Oxford.
“The Barry scholarship is unique not only in being the most generous scholarship to study at Oxford, but also in its focus on supporting students who are dedicated to various aspects of the life of the mind, including the pursuit of truth and virtue,” says Jennifer Frey, a UofSC philosophy professor who nominated Trice for the award.
Other key attributes Barry Scholars should exhibit are openness to change and the capacity to debate others with sincerity and respect.
“Allie is a young woman of exceptional academic promise, but she is also a person of exceptional moral character,” Frey says. “Allie possesses that old fashioned virtue the scholastics called studiositas: She doesn’t just work hard, and she isn’t merely clever; she has a broad and deep intellectual vision, and she knows what is worthy of her time and attention.
“I am confident she will flourish intellectually at Oxford alongside other members of her Barry cohort.”
A native of Charlotte, Trice was a Capstone Scholar and graduated in December 2020 with degrees in English and history. She says she knew UofSC was the place for her on her first visit.
“I'm a hopeless romantic,” she says. “I visited the campus and fell in love with the huge oak trees on the Horseshoe, the flowers in bloom all around campus and the obvious school pride and spirit that I saw in the students walking around the campus.
“I also grew to love the city more than I ever expected, and I still have a lingering hope that someday I'll end up there again. It was a wonderful experience, and it has certainly shaped the trajectory of my future in ways I'm still finding out every day.”
One of her major experiences as a student was conducting research on the sounds of New York City following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks and producing a paper titled “Listening to 9/11: Toward an auditory history of a catastrophe.”
For someone who loves early medieval British history, the thought of doing research on such recent history was eye-opening.
“History is not just thousand-year-old events,” Trice says. “It can be a 20-year-old event.”
That work will inform her study at Oxford, where she will pursue a master’s of philosophy in medieval history, examining the sensory history of religion thousands of years ago.
“Working on the 9/11 project gave me a fascination with trying to understand how people experienced their surroundings throughout history, and I intend to apply it to a much older era that I have always loved: early medieval Britain.”
Frey shares Trice’s fascination with the era.
“There is no better place to study early medieval British history than Oxford, so she is going exactly where she needs to be to make progress in her research,” Frey says.
Trice has been working as a nanny for a family in Mississippi while she plotted out her path after graduation. She will leave for Oxford in September.
“I think one of the most unique aspects of this scholarship is that it is invested in rewarding the pursuit of truth,” Trice says. “I felt like I could not have asked for a program with goals more complimentary to my own.”
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