Professor Helen Winter Speaks at The Hague University of Applied Sciences

Professor Helen Winter spent two days in The Hague at the Relational Peer Mediation Conference, held at the law school of The Hague University of Applied Sciences. The conference was hosted by her European colleagues Barbara Warwas, Naomi van Stapele, and Tamara Takacs. Professor Winter spoke on "Peer Mediation in Higher Education in Action" and introduced her newly developed courses, ADR & Social Entrepreneurship, and the Community Conflict Resolution Lab. Both courses place students at the center of the classroom experience and equip them to understand conflict resolution as a practical tool to address real-world challenges and promote justice.

Through critical dialogue, embodied workshops, and co-creation labs, the conference explored how relational pedagogies—and the courage to lean into discomfort—can help build universities where emotions matter, conflict invites connection, and vulnerability fuels inclusive learning.

Professor Winter was also recently appointed as a board member for a €1 million EU-funded project at De Haagse Hogeschool / The Hague University of Applied Sciences (THUAS). The initiative, Relational Peer Mediation Training to Foster Affective Learning through the Pedagogy of Discomfort, builds on R3SOLUTE’s psychosocial peer mediation model to train 500 students and 200 faculty members as peer mediators—expanding the reach and impact of peer mediation in higher education and beyond.