蜜芽传媒

A Kenyan-born sociologist has achieved not one, but two, historic firsts: becoming one of the youngest women awarded a full professorship in Oxford's history, and the youngest black professor ever at Oxford University. Less than one percent of academic staff in the UK are black and female.

Speaking to Newsday, Professor Patricia Kingori said she'd been shocked at the size and positivity of the response to her appointment - and that she hopes it can bring practical change for other black academics.

"There is absolutely no lack of interest on the part of black people and black students to become academics but for some reason we need to do much, much more to make these environments conducive to black academics staying and flourishing... I'm really hoping the attention this position has achieved can force conversation and more than conversation, action."

(Photo: Professor Patricia Kingori. Credit: Somerville College).