Patricia Kingori

Patricia Kingori is a sociologist whose primary expertise lies in exploring the everyday ethical experiences of frontline workers in global health.

She is joint module lead on the International Research Ethics, MSc in Global Health Science and Epidemiology, and a DPhil supervisor for Frances Butcher, Kate Enright, Francis Kombe and Scholastica Zakayo. She also mentors early career researchers at Ethox/Oxford Ethics and Humanities and undergraduates at Somerville College, Oxford.

Research

Patricia’s 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 Wellcome and the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF).

Her 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.

Supervision and Teaching

Patricia is a member of the Global Health Bioethics Network and leads the qualitative research support for early-career researchers in low-income countries including Malawi, South Africa, Cambodia and Kenya. She is also a member of the core project management team for Oxford Ethics and Humanities and also for the Oxford Wellcome Centre-Johns Hopkins Berman Institute Global Infectious Disease Ethics (GLIDE) Collaborative. Patricia plays a central role in the Wellcome Humanities and Social Science Centres Collaboration which brings together centres in Oxford, Exeter, Durham and Edinburgh.

Service

Patricia is a member of the Central University Research Ethics Committee (CUREC), and serves on various funding committees and review groups, including for Wellcome and UKRI. Patricia is also a trustee of the Medical Research Foundation and sits on the SAGE SPI-B which provides independent, expert behavioural science advice to the UK government in relation to COVID-19.

Patricia is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion issues in academia. She is currently leading several initiatives, at Somerville College and OEH, including a visiting scholarship for Black academics to the University of Oxford and a student internships scheme aimed at increasing diversity. Patricia also contributed to Wellcome’s Reimagine Research initiative in 2020.

Patricia was awarded a Merit Award by the University of Oxford. In 2015, Patricia was awarded a place on the prestigious Powerlist in recognition of her position as among <1% of Black British female academics employed by an Oxbridge institution.