How can we shift conflicts from destructive to constructive?
That’s not just a theoretical question for dozens of Middlebury Institute students who have been exploring it over the past year through a wide range of hands-on projects.
As Conflict Transformation Cohort Fellows, they receive substantial fellowships for their yearlong research projects through a seven-year Middlebury initiative, which began in 2022.
“It is gratifying to facilitate students’ deep learning from one another, guest speakers, and at myriad events about diverse approaches to conflict transformation—and witness their creative solutions that mobilize diverse disciplines, cultures, and worldviews. Through the experience, they build an impactful portfolio of knowledge, skills, and dispositions for both analysis of and interventions into critical problems around the globe,” says Dr. Netta Avineri, a professor and applied linguistic anthropologist who leads graduate training and research across Middlebury for the Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation.
Academic John Paul Lederach’s Little Book of Conflict Transformation serves as a resource for fellows.
“He notes that one core practice is using the issue in front of you as a window, recognizing the productive potential of conflict at various scales,” said Avineri. “As students delve deeper into the histories shaping present-day circumstances, listen to diverse perspectives on the issue, and consider various possible ways forward, they have the tools to imagine new visions of the world in partnership with a range of stakeholders.”
These are a few of the conflicts that the most recent cohort of fellows have been exploring, highlighting methods, approaches, and potential for conflict transformation across diverse fields.
The conflict: Protecting the ocean is critical to addressing climate change, but human activity on the high seas—which make up nearly 60 percent of the earth’s surface—is largely unregulated and unrestricted.
Environmental policy student Libby Mohn asked people working across government, NGOs, and the private sector about what worked in the implementation of projects on the high seas. They pointed not at novel legal frameworks or operating agreements as the key, but at good old person-to-person relationships.
The conflict: We use language to name and negotiate conflict. Words and discourse inform how we think about and approach conflicts, both for better and for worse.
TESOL student Elisabeth Ampthor created a practical resource for English language teachers who are interested in the relationship between peacebuilding and language education to give them ways to bring these concrete practices into their classrooms.
The challenge: As artificial intelligence supercharges automated translating and interpreting tools, it’s expanding access and facilitating communication for speakers of many different languages, but not often American Sign Language (ASL).
Localization student Yuxuan Lai identified this gap in access to language tech tools and seeks to address it with her own tech tool powered by the ASL community.
Davis Collaborative in Conflict Transformation
Video: What is the Conflict Transformation Fellowship?
Apply for the Conflict Transformation Graduate Fellowship
See Dr. Avineri’s presentation for prospective students: “Conflict Transformation - Interdisciplinary Approaches for Impactful Social Change.”
| by Caitlin Fillmore
During a period of escalating global conflicts, nearly 70 international poets contributed writing around the themes of peace, poetry, and policy.
| by Sierra Abukins
Transforming conflict is at the heart of a seven-year Middlebury initiative that is funding dozens of graduate fellows each year to apply their learning in research and community projects. The first annual event showcased projects and sparked conversation.
| by Stephen Diehl
The Mekong originates in the Tibetan Plateau and crosses six countries, including Myanmar, Thailand, Lao PDR, Cambodia, and Vietnam—offering an excellent laboratory to study the vectors of conflict transformation.
