Prof Cecelia Lynch, of the University of California, Irvine, discusses the academic career of US foreign policy and disarmament expert Dr Merze Tate. Prof Cecelia Lynch, Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of California, Irvine, discusses the academic career of US foreign policy and disarmament expert Merze Tate. The opening remark for this event is kindly given by Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson. Dr Merze Tate was a prolific expert on US diplomacy and in 1932, the first African-American woman to attend Oxford (she commented several times she was “the only colored American in the entire university, man or woman”), where she studied International Relations. She was also the first African-American woman to earn a doctorate in Government and International Relations from Harvard. In 1942 and 1948, she wrote two books on disarmament. Through her stints in several committees, Tate tried to tackle gender and racial discrimination in the academic system. Prof Cecelia Lynch, of the University of California, Irvine, discusses the academic career of US foreign policy and disarmament expert Dr Merze Tate. Tate was also the first African American graduate student at Oxford. Vice Chancellor Louise Richardson provides opening remarks in this session, marking the centenary of women being allowed to matriculate at Oxford.