Patricia Kingori Becomes Youngest Black Woman to Receive Tenure at Oxford University

Nationwide— 28-year old Patricia Kingori, who is originally from Kenya, has been awarded a full professorship at the University of Oxford, making her the youngest Black woman to receive tenure so far in the institution’s history.

Kingori is a sociologist who studies the everyday ethical experiences of frontline workers in a global scope. She was appointed at the Wellcome Centre for Ethics and Humanities at Oxford “in recognition of the quality and global impact of her research on academia and beyond,” the university stated, according to Quartz Africa.

For 8 years, Kingori has been at Oxford where she made several achievements. She had acquired competitive funding grants, written outstanding publications, supervised several DPhil candidates, and taught hundreds of students.

Prior to that, Kingori’s journey wasn’t really smooth. She had just given birth to her first child when she received a Wellcome Doctoral Studentship to fund her Ph.D. with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

She had to file for maternity leave for a year before relocating to Kenya with her family to do fieldwork. At that time, Kenya was facing civil unrest and Kingori, who was pregnant with her second, had to leave the country. She was able to return after 10 months to finalize her data collection with the help of 2 new supervisors.

Kingori eventually completed her Ph.D. and went on to do postdoctoral research at the University of Oxford’s Ethox Centre as a Wellcome Research Fellowship. Since then, Kingori managed to go from being a research lecturer to an associate professor in just 5 years.

“Patricia has moved many mountains and shattered countless glass ceilings to secure this historic achievement,” said Jan Royall, the principal baroness at Oxford’s Somerville College. “In the truest tradition of Somerville, she is a woman of firsts, a trailblazer. And yet, I have no doubt that where Patricia leads with such determination, implacable good humor, and brilliance, others will follow.”