Zimin Li
Université Catholique de Louvain, Belgium
I moved from China to Belgium for my PhD studies from October, 2014 to April, 2019 at the UCLouvain, where I was awarded and funded by Aspirant-FNRS of Belgium, a highly competitive PhD fellow. Simultaneously, I was awarded a 2019 Chinese Government Award for Outstanding Self-financed Students Abroad, which is the highest award given by Chinese government to the graduate student’s study overseas. As a self-financed student abroad at the soil lab of UCLouvain, I have experienced first-hand the challenges of establishing a new life in an unfamiliar culture and as a somewhat visible minority. I was the first person who received the highest education in my family, despite that my parents, brothers and sisters were not offered the opportunities that I received. I have some academic achievement to those who saw through my differences and provided the extra help required for me to succeed. But, the field of Soil Science arguably remains overlooked among all STEM, despite offering lots of services for land health and sustainable development. As a Chinese man, my activism for justice comes from a place of solidarity with my Asian and black peers. Based on the difference in culture, language and cognition, particularly targeting our Asian and black peers in and out of academia, I contribute my efforts to the EAG’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee as an opportunity to act all together to ensure that our exploitative model in Academic circles (especially in Master and PhD student) is inhibited by increasing the inclusion of diverse communities, creating a peaceful and healthy academic circle.