As African intellectuals break new scholarship ground overseas, Kenyan-born academic Patricia Kingori has become the youngest black professor at the United Kingdom’s prestigious Oxford University, the youngest women to ever be awarded a full professorship in its 925-year history.
Kingori is a sociologist whose primary expertise lies in exploring the everyday ethical experiences of frontline workers in global health. Her research interests intersect the sociology of science and medicine, STS, bioethics and she has extensive experience of undertaking critical examinations of ethics in practice in different countries in Africa and South East Asia. This work has been supported through various funders, including the Wellcome Trust and the Grand Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).
Patricia Kingori work to date has focused on the views, values and experiences of fieldworkers and other frontline research staff. She has published extensively in journals such as Social Science and Medicine and has guest edited several special issues on topics relating to global health, ethics and frontline workers. Examples of her work include a focus on everyday ethical experiences among:
- Fieldworkers in clinical trials in East and West Africa
- WASH staff in Ebola treatment units in West Africa
- A&E healthcare professionals in contexts of austerity in Greece and the UK
- Ethical preparedness of frontline workers in humanitarian crises (RECAP)
- Frontline healthcare professionals and their concerns about COVID-19 vaccines
In addition, Patricia currently leads a team of researchers exploring concerns around Fakes, Fabrications and Falsehoods in Global Health. This is a four-year Wellcome-funded Senior Investigator award which seeks to understand the people, places and processes involved in contemporary concerns about fakes in global health.
