Beyond Polarization Residency Highlights Strategies for Building Understanding Across Difference

Fifty education abroad professionals from across the globe gathered in Prague from July 7-10, 2026, for the Beyond Polarization Residency: Transforming Conflict into Collaboration.

​Led by The Forum on Education Abroad in partnership with the Middlebury College Conflict Transformation Collaborative and hosted by AEP: Academic Experience in Prague, Czech Republic, the residency brought together professionals from universities, education abroad organizations, and related fields to explore how conflict transformation can strengthen education abroad practice.  

This four-day immersive experience was designed to enable participants to develop practical skills for managing conflict, fostering dialogue, and supporting learning across cultural and institutional contexts. Throughout the residency, participants examined how conflict, when it is approached intentionally, can become an opportunity for learning, trust-building, and collaboration.  
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By participating in interactive sessions, reflection, and discussion, participants explored strategies for navigating cultural difference, supporting student well-being, strengthening communication, and responding thoughtfully to complex challenges that arise in international education from these and other potential sources of conflict and polarization. ​

​Responding to a Changing Environment 

As education abroad professionals navigate increasingly complex geopolitical realities, the need for skills to move beyond polarization continues to grow.  

"As international educators, we must take time to think about our own beliefs, interactions, and assumptions. It’s critical to demonstrate curiosity and openness if we are going to do our work effectively,” said Melissa Torres, President & CEO of The Forum on Education Abroad. “The Beyond Polarization Residency provided numerous opportunities for on-site staff to learn from experts outside of higher education, to practice deep listening skills, and to walk away with strategies they can use in their own personal and professional lives.” ​

Learning Through Diverse Perspectives 

A hallmark of the residency was bringing together diverse perspectives from within and beyond the field of education abroad. Participants engaged with faculty, guest speakers, and peers from 20 different countries, creating opportunities to explore difficult questions while building connections across different roles, languages, and cultures.  

The residency encouraged participants to move beyond theoretical discussions and focus on practical applications. Sessions explored communication strategies, approaches to de-escalation, trust-building, reflective practice, and ways to foster constructive engagement in moments of tension or disagreement.  

“The 2026 Beyond Polarization Residency in Prague, Czechia, was a distinctive opportunity to build our capacities for engaging meaningfully with conflict and change,” said Dr. David Wick, Residency Faculty Member and Graduate Pillar Lead, Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation, and Associate Professor and Chair International Education Management, Middlebury Institute of International Studies. “Together we practiced curiosity, risk-taking, and creativity with a relational focus. During the residency, we explored relational neuroscience and challenged our thinking about polarization. We shared stories and recognized that when you can see change in yourself, you can believe that others can change, too.”  ​

Supporting the Conversation 

The Forum is grateful to the organizations and individuals whose support helped make the residency possible. "In an increasingly divided world, understanding the root causes of polarization is key to finding solutions that endure. The Forum’s Beyond Polarization Residency in Prague provided an extraordinary opportunity for study abroad professionals to gain insights into how the intercultural experiences we provide for our students can fundamentally alter these dynamics in positive ways, said Carlos J. Vélez-Blasini, Ph.D., Dean of International Programs of Middlebury C.V. Starr Schools Abroad. “Middlebury’s own international work with students using a conflict transformation approach is predicated on the notion that building community, getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, and redefining interpersonal conflict as an unavoidable but potentially generative aspect of human interaction, are essential elements in preventing or reversing this polarization trend. This and other recent collaborations between The Forum and The Middlebury Conflict Transformation Collaborative are powerful examples of how we can come together as international educators to address some of the world's most intractable problems."  

​The Forum is grateful to AEP: Academic Experience in Prague for the opportunity to have the event in Prague, as onsite staff were a key audience. “Hosting the Beyond Polarization Residency in Prague was a privilege and a joy for our team,” said Lindsay Allen, Director at AEP: Academic Experience in Prague. “The topics addressed in the residency are ones that deeply affect our day-to-day work as onsite international educators. Conflict in its many forms is inevitable, and being better able to harness moments of tension and turn them into learning and growth will benefit our students, our team, and our community.” 

4 Key Takeaways from the Beyond Polarization Residency from Forum President & CEO Melissa Torres 
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The Beyond Polarization Residency highlighted both the opportunities and challenges facing education abroad professionals today. Here are four key insights that Forum President & CEO Melissa Torres observed during the event: 

• We already ask a great deal of on-site staff. They support students' academic success, personal well-being, intercultural learning, and day-to-day challenges while often serving as mentors, sounding boards, and trusted guides. Today, they are also being called upon to help students understand and move beyond polarization. 

• Conflict is part of the human experience and in and of itself, isn’t a bad thing. When conflict turns into polarization, which Residency Speaker Aziz Abu Sarah, co-founder of InterAct International, described as “the belief that we already know what’s in the others’ hearts and minds,” we lose the ability to see the humanity in people with opposing viewpoints. 

• Polarization may affect almost every aspect of a student’s study abroad experience: in the classroom, with their peers, on social media, in homestays or residence halls, how they interact with the local community, how they experience excursions, and how they process their experience overall. 

• Social media and the ubiquitous use of cell phones are negatively impacting our ability to interact with each other in face-to-face settings.  ​