Abigail Isaac, Political Science honors student wins Rhodes Scholarship

Abigail Isaac (BA Hons Political Science 2022) repeatedly stresses that her recently-awarded Rhodes Scholarship is a collective achievement. “It’s complicated,” she says. “I have an immense amount of gratitude for the opportunities I’ve been given, and I’m thinking all the time about what it means for my community.” Isaac’s family of origin came to Canada from Ethiopia and Eritrea. She also spent the fall volunteering in a refugee camp in Calais, France, and knows first-hand the hurdles in the way of migrants.

What does it mean for a Black woman who has intellectual and activist interests in displacement, migration, and racial justice to accept a scholarship named after Cecil Rhodes, the controversial 19^th century British imperialist? Isaac was clear in her application and her interview that she concurs with activists who have argued that Oxford University should disocciate from Rhodes’ legacy. She wants to avoid being tokenised as a “model minority” who “overcame adversity” and instead frames her tremendous achievement as both “hard” and a collective effort.

During her degree in Political Science at U of A, Isaac did Honours research on the gendered impacts of climate-induced displacement in central America. She credits the department with helping her see she could do the work she wanted to do, and introducing her to the critical perspectives that shaped her Rhodes application. She hopes to study in the Migration and Refugee Studies program, or maybe Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies. She is excited to work with scholar-activists critically engaging some of Oxford’s history: “I am asking myself, what will be my place there? This space will give me access to resources, and, I hope, to a community. We don’t do anything alone.”

Read the UAlberta Folio story about Abigail here.