UNIVERSITY PARK, PA – A major milestone was reached at Pennsylvania State University with Tina Lasisi becoming the first ever Black PhD graduate in Anthropology. Lasisi achieved the historic accomplishment in 2021 after years of battling adversity.
Breaking Barriers
Lasisi imprinted her name in Penn State history by being the inaugural Black student to earn a doctoral degree in her field from the university. She marked the achievement in a tweet that has gone viral.
Lasisi announced her pioneering educational accomplishment through a tweet in December 2021. The post swiftly went viral, amassing over 13,500 retweets, 1,200 quotes, and more than 204,000 likes.
In the attention-grabbing tweet, Lasisi stated: “The fact that it took until 2021 for someone to be the first tells you something. The fact that this first is biracial & from Europe tells you even more.”
However, Lasisi confessed the trailblazing achievement was difficult and took longer than anticipated. She cited having to confront extensive anti-Blackness and misogynoir as major obstacles that even supportive allies could not fully help overcome.
Lasisi’s groundbreaking doctoral research focused on analyzing the genetic architecture and evolutionary function of human scalp hair morphology. As an anthropologist, she has wide-ranging interests in the evolution of human phenotypic variation between populations.
Previous Academic Success
Her barrier-breaking PhD caps off previous academic success for Lasisi. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in Archaeology & Anthropology from the prestigious University of Cambridge. While there, she wrote an undergraduate thesis on quantitative diversity in human hair fiber shape and pigmentation.
Beyond the laboratory, Lasisi actively participated in science communication to make her areas of expertise more accessible. She shared content on social media and her personal website focused on topics like social perceptions of race and the history of scientific racism.
Why This Milestone Matters
The viral attention of her tweet centred on why Lasisi being the first Black anthropology PhD graduate mattered. She contended her mixed racial background and European origin carried significance regarding the lack of diversity in academia.
In a follow-up tweet, Lasisi expanded on why this initial milestone left considerable progress still required. She highlighted having “a single ally is not enough” against the ingrained anti-Blackness and misogynoir she endured in the program.
Ongoing Need to Improve Diversity
While celebrating Lasisi’s accomplishments, her tweets underscored the need for continued advancement of diversity and inclusion in higher education. She urged that allyship alone cannot remedy institutional discrimination without broader cultural change.
With her barrier-breaking degree now completed after years of hard work, the doors of opportunity have opened wide for Lasisi. The attention surrounding her viral tweet has spread her scholarship to new audiences hungry for diverse voices in academia.
