Robert Higney

Candidate statement

Associate Professor, Department of English, City College of New York, CUNY
In the role of Second Vice President, I would focus on sustaining and growing the MSA’s
annual conference, our international presence, and innovative interdisciplinary
programming like the SIGs. I would like to continue the work done in recent years to
support the involvement of scholars from diverse backgrounds, disciplines, and positions
in the profession—including graduate students—with the goal of keeping MSA the
welcoming organization that I’ve known it to be since I attended my first conference in
Montreal in 2009. I have been a frequent presenter and session organizer, and bring my
experience as a member of the local committee for the Brooklyn conference in 2023, where
I took the lead in assembling the conference’s book exhibit.
At my home institution, the City College of New York, CUNY, I teach global modernism, the
history of the novel, and contemporary fiction. In 2022, I published Institutional Character:
Collectivity, Individuality, and the Modernist Novel (UVA Press); an essay on histories of
close reading, “From the English School to the Archive,” recently appeared in symplokē.
I’ve been successful in a variety of administrative roles: as deputy chair of my department,
co-chair of our campus strategic planning process, on the executive committee of our
Faculty Senate, and as director of a variety of departmental programs and advisor to
student groups. My faculty page may be found here: https://www.ccny.cuny.edu/profiles/robert-higney