Complex sentence: From 1977 to 1981 she had a full-time academic position in the psychology department at Southern Illinois University, where she began to think of race as something she could address through her research.
Split into simpler sentences: From 1977 to 1981 she had a full-time academic position in the psychology department at Southern Illinois University. At Southern Illinois University is where she began to think of race as something she could address through her research.