Kenyan-Born Scholar Makes History After Attaining Full Professorship at Oxford University

UK-based Kenyan scholar Dr. Patricia King’ori has made history after attaining a full professorship at the prestigious Oxford University.

This makes the Kenyan-born sociologist one of the youngest female scholars to become a full professor in the Ivy-league college’s 925-year history.

She also becomes the youngest Black professor at Oxford and Cambridge University.

“To have my body of work recognised in this way is a great honour, and I am deeply grateful to the many people who have inspired and supported me so far,” said Prof. King’ori.

Commenting on Patricia’s achievement, Somerville’s Principal Baroness Jan Royall said: "Patricia has moved many mountains and shattered countless glass ceilings to secure this historic achievement. 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 humour and brilliance, others will follow.”

Patricia was born in Kenya and relocated to Saint Kitts and Nevis, a Caribbean nation, where she grew up before moving to London as a teenager. 

She holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Sociology from the Royal Holloway, and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Patrician has been an Associate Professor in Global Health Ethics at Oxford since 2018 and has previously served as an adviser to various organizations among them the World Health Organisation (WHO), Save the Children, and the Obama administration’s White House Cancer Diagnosis and Treatment in Africa Initiative. She is a recipient of the Wellcome Senior Investigator Award.