About the Scholarship

The Julius & Betty Lewis Isaacs Scholarship in Language & Literature is designed for outstanding CCNY undergraduates who are currently or planning to pursue an English major. It is awarded on the basis of academic excellence and financial need.
The Scholarship Includes:
  • A stipend of $3,000 for every 15 credits completed (to a maximum of $24,000).
  • Individual study with professors in the Department of English.
  • Depending on the availability of funds, support for study abroad.

Eligible candidates must demonstrate passion and aptitude for humanistic studies. Though the program is centered on the study English literature, they will be expected to study foreign and classical languages as well. The program wishes to graduate students who are well-read, articulate, and at home in the world of letters and ideas. Ideally they are planning to apply to doctoral programs and pursue an academic career.

Isaac Fellows are automatically part of the English Honors Program and are expected to pursue work on an Honors thesis with a mentor. For more about the English Honors Program click here.

The Isaacs Scholarship Program Director

Robert Higney is an Assistant Professor of English at CCNY. He teaches courses in the history of the novel, modernism, twentieth-century British literature and contemporary fiction. His work has appeared in journals including Modernism/modernity, Novel: A Forum on Fiction, and Contemporary Literature, and he is finishing a book on modern novelists and the idea of “the institution.” His received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University in 2014.