Varying degrees of north and south

Dunedin resident Peter Dulgar, who previously studied far to the north, in Alaska, will today graduate from the University of Otago, one of the world's most southernmost universities. Photo by Stephen Jaquiery.

When Peter Dulgar graduates from the University of Otago with a PhD today, he will celebrate a rare feat - a degree from the world's most northerly English-speaking university and another from the southernmost.

In 1998, United States-born Mr Dulgar gained a master of fine arts degree in creative writing from the University of Alaska Fairbanks, which, at 64deg North and within the Arctic Circle, is billed as "America's Arctic university".

University of Otago graduation list

At 45deg South, Otago is the world's southernmost English-speaking university.

Mr Dulgar (45), whose PhD focuses on aspects of the adaptation of five short stories into film, revels in seriously cold weather.

He hails from Minnesota, in the US northern midwest, the second coldest state in the country - "just a little bit warmer than Alaska".

There, winter temperatures can plummet to minus 40degC, often with a deadly wind chill, but summer can reach a "pretty roasty" 40degC.

Mr Dulgar met his future wife, warm weather-loving former Aucklander Dr Davinia Thornley, now a senior lecturer in the Otago department of media, film and communication, while they were teaching English in Japan in 1992.

They met again in the US, and were married in Minnesota. Yesterday, they marked their 15th wedding anniversary.

She says Dunedin weather provides a good compromise.

Family and friends, have arrived in the city for today's 3pm graduation ceremony at the Dunedin Town Hall.

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