MIIC News

We're proud to share that Dr. Eva Janebova, Founding Director of the Mestenhauser Institute for International Collaboration (MIIC), took the stage at EAIE 2026 in Glasgow. In her role as Chair of the Publications Committee at EAIE, Dr. Janebova led a Community Talk titled "Write for the EAIE," offering practical guidance for those looking to contribute to the association's publications, and joined a panel session on "Assuring Comprehensive Internationalisation Through a Systemic Approach," exploring how institutions can move beyond fragmented efforts to build internationalisation strategies that are coherent, sustainable, and embedded across every level of the organization. Her participation reflects MIIC's ongoing commitment to advancing thoughtful, collaborative approaches to international education on the global stage.

🌍 What does it take to become a leader who builds bridges instead of barriers?

MIIC's annual program, Cross-Cultural Pathways to Leadership Summer Program 2026, has officially wrapped up this year! We were privileged to work with 18 young Americans of Czech heritage who have come to the Czech Republic to deepen not only their understanding of their roots, but also their capacity to lead across cultures.

Over two weeks, participants have engaged in remarkable conversations with distinguished Czech leaders from diplomacy, government, academia, and civil society. We are deeply grateful to Jaroslav Kantůrek (Consul General), Jiri Kratky (Commissioner for Czech Diaspora), Prof. Michal Vrablík (Vice Rector, Charles University), Jana Sehnalkova (Director of the Fulbright Commission Czech Republic), Dr. Leona Stašová (Vice Rector), Prof. Blanka Klimova (Vice Dean of University of Hradec Kralove), Dr. Stanislav Klusáček (Vice Dean of BUT), MP Zdeňka Blišťanová, and many others for generously sharing their insights and opening doors through exclusive visits to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Charles University, the University of Hradec Králové, Brno University of Technology, and the Parliament of the Czech Republic.

But leadership is not learned only through inspiring conversations.

One of the most powerful parts of the program was an interactive Theatre of the Oppressed workshop led by Dr. Lenka Polankova and Dr. Eva Janebova, together with local students from Brno University of Technology.

Through experiential learning, participants stepped into real-life intercultural situations, explored hidden biases, confronted discrimination, and practiced how to respond to prejudice, exclusion, and racism. Rather than simply discussing these issues, they experienced them, reflected on them, and developed practical strategies for becoming courageous allies and inclusive leaders.These are the kinds of transformative learning experiences that stay with people long after a summer program ends.

At the Mestenhauser Institute for International Collaboration (MIIC), we believe that preparing the next generation of cross-cultural leaders requires much more than teaching about cultures—it means creating opportunities to experience empathy, challenge assumptions, and develop the courage to foster understanding across differences.
This is how we build the next generation of cross-cultural leaders.

Last week, MIIC Director Eva Janebova worked with around 80 passionate academic colleagues from across Lebanon during the programme "Institutional and Inter-institutional Pathways to Inclusive Higher Education in Lebanon." The discussions were rich, the exchange of practices taking place across Lebanese higher education institutions truly remarkable.

The programme was co-facilitated by European Expert Jeanine Gregersen - Hermans.

A heartfelt thank you to Erasmus+ Office in Lebanon as well as Nizar El Mahtar and Rima Rassi for bringing this community together and for organising such a meaningful event.

Inclusion is not a destination but a collaborative journey—one that becomes stronger through partnerships, shared reflection, and mutual support!

📢 Are you a student looking for a fall internship? We are looking for marketing/admin intern!

📚 Come join us as an intern to gain experience in an multicultural NGO working in international education.

🔵 An ideal candidate is:
- Interested in international education, NGO/non-profit work, and/or marketing and administrative work
- A student based in or closed to Prague looking for an internship and available starting in September
- Comfortable communicating in English
- Is organized and has basic competences in social media marketing, Canva, and ideally WordPress.
- Curious, open, and willing to learn new things

📬 Interested? Contact Lucy Roberts at lucy.roberts@miic.world to apply. Please send your CV in English and a short letter of motivation.

⭐ Note: This is an unpaid/voluntary internship. It is ideal for students looking for an internship to fulfill their study requirements or to gain volunteer/work experience before graduating.

We are pleased to invite the MIIC community to the second annual International Students ‘Conference on Social Problems and Social Work in Europe, held at the University of Łódź from 25.05 - 27.05. 2026.

This unique international conference presents the outcomes of student projects, educational experiences, and research activities developed within European academic collaboration initiatives. Over the course of several days, participants will have the opportunity to explore the results of projects carried out by students, engage in discussions on innovative educational practices, and learn about international research initiatives addressing contemporary social and democratic challenges.

We've just wrapped the third and final day of our Mestenhauser Academy for Leadership in Internationalization! We are so grateful to our partner in the project, Czech Technical University in Prague

We began the day with a World Cafe led by Martin Považan, Dr. Renata Tomaskova, and Dr. Nadege Firsova. Participants worked with three experts and three thematic spotlights, co-creating group outcomes and rotating around the room.

The final module of the program discussed evidence-based decision making, led by Dr. Jos Beelen and Dr. Darla K. Deardorff.

We concluded the program with reflections from participants and discussing how we can bring what we've learned back to our home institutions.

☀️ Thank you so much to everyone who joined this program over these amazing three days! At the Mestenhauser Institute, we always aim to build programs that help build a more interconnected world and it was such a pleasure to be joined by amazing trainers and participants who share this goal!

We will see you next year for the 2027 Leadership Academy!

We were honored to share our experience with building inclusive international partner communities at the STAR Scholars Network 2026 Internationalization of Higher Education, Digital Transformation, and Academic Diplomacy (iHED) conference as keynote speakers.

Eva Janebova, Katherine Wimpenny, and Lucy Roberts spoke on Using Professional Learning Communities for Collaboration in International Projects in a panel moderated by Aicha ADOUI, Ph.D.

We are happy to share our work in our Horizon Europe YOUROPE project. Thank you to STAR Scholars and Eva Janebova, STAR Scholars Country Director for the Czech Republic for inviting us.

MIIC continues to support young people in becoming active European citizens and building democracy with a new Horizon Europe project: DEMOCREATE. The project is funded by the European Commission and builds on our work with our YOUROPE project. DEMOCREATE is lead by Coventry University and aims to transform European democracy education through community-led research and action.

We are excited to continue working with Katherine Wimpenny, Dr. Kayden J Schumacher, Sanna Ruhalahti, Javid Jafarov, Laurence Guérin, Enrique Blanco Villarreal, Dr. Naomi van Stapele, Anna Jarkiewicz, Halkoaho Arja, Knowledge Innovation Centre, Lucija Vihar, and to bring in a new partner to help strengthen this work in the Czech Republic, the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education (including Prof. Jaroslav Miller and Petr Černikovský). Thank you to Coventry University for all of your effort on submitting this project and we are very grateful to be a part of it!

MIIC colleague Lucy Roberts recently represented the institute at the 2026 Cross-Border Dialogue Conference in Mikulov, Czech Republic, a conference and design-thinking hackathon designed for students and young professionals.

As a young professional in international education, she worked on the challenge of building cross-border learning hubs with conference challenge partner EduVision and their ARCHIMEDES outdoor classrooms. This was a great opportunity to discuss challenges in education and imagine a future where students across borders can connect even more.

CEEDUCON 2025, organized by the Czech National Agency for International Education and Research, was a very eventful time at the Mestenhauser Institute! To kick off CEEDUCON 2025, MIIC and some of our higher education experts hosted a networking event for HE professionals interested in internationalization and building transatlantic connections. The event was hosted by Professor Jaroslav Miller at the National Accreditation Bureau for Higher Education. Speakers included Dr. Darla K. Deardorff, Dr. Jos Beelen, Dr. Harvey Charles, and Dr. Eva Janebova. We were joined by many familiar faces in the MIIC community, but many new people as well! We are grateful to everyone who attended and to NAU for hosting us.

MIIC Experts Lenka Henebergova, Eva Janebova, Harvey Charles, and Jos Beelen also led a panel on the role of international education in responding to current geopolitical issues. Participants found the session to be provocative and stimulating and provided the highest reviews at the end of the session.