Who are you?
My name is Grace Mbang. I am a PhD candidate in information and communication sciences at the Université Grenoble-Alpes. I am also president and co-founder of AJC-France, the Association des Jeunes Chercheurs de l'Afrique Francophone en France.
Why are you attending the YASE meeting?
I decided to attend the YASE meeting because I was interested in the theme. For the record, Luc Allemand, the event's initiator, had already spotted us on social networks: AJC-France is a brand new association that has existed for almost two years. He told us that we were the core target of the event. Since this was in line with our objectives, as an association and as young scientists, we thought, "Why not go there?“. Because indeed, we are wondering about after the PhD. How will we conduct our research? What are we going to do next? Do we continue in research and teaching, or do we convert to other fields?
Do you have any particular motivations to return to Africa after your PhD?
Of course, the main motivation is that you are never better than at home. But I am not so sure. It's going to depend on the opportunities. Because at a certain point, we try to weigh the pros and cons and ask ourselves what might be beneficial or not for us.
What are the obstacles?
The main obstacle will obviously be job security. And also, I arrived in France almost ten years ago, and I did all my university career in France. This makes it very difficult for me to understand the university system in my home country, Gabon. Coming to YASE allows to get information about this. And what will we be able to bring at home? How are we going to be able to integrate into higher education there?
What do you take from this conference?
What I have learned from the first part, which fits into the aims of our association, is cooperation. That is, no matter where you are, you are able to work with scientists in other countries, in Africa, or even in Europe or America. There is the language barrier, but we must be able to overcome it, and get the information to know in which program we could cooperate, how we could cooperate, and especially make inter-disciplinary work.
Interview by Jean-Bruno Tagne