Summer Academy 2025: Exploring Polarities

The SummerAcademy 2025, held in Mariënkroon, Netherlands from August 10–17, brought together young adults and expert lecturers from over ten countries for a unique interdisciplinary journey centered on “Exploring Polarities”. With ten lecturers from diverse academic and cultural backgrounds, representing Eastern and Western Europe as well as Asia, the SummerAcademy fostered deep exchanges that bridged personal, theoretical, and cultural divides.

A vital highlight was the powerful learning environment, cultivated through interactive workshops, panel discussions, personal discussions and small peer groups. On a personal level, the impact was profound — one participant described the workshop “Exploring Polarities within Yourself” as a life-changing experience that enabled honest reflection on inner polarities. On the theoretical front, participants of the workshop “Exploring Polarities in History” were invited to analyze and construct conspiracies, integrating historical perspectives to investigate forms of polarization.

The program included practical workshops on art, personal psychology, cooking or Tango, illustrating how harmony emerges from bodily polarities. Theoretical workshops explored polarities in the disciplines of politics & communication, economics, public health and history.

The panel discussion highlighted the SummerAcademy’s interdisciplinary and intergenerational dialogue. Lecturers and students learned mutually, exchanging insights at eye level.

A Dialogue in Europe

In the middle of the week the experience was enriched by a field excursion to The Hague, featuring visits to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and Kunstmuseum Den Haag. These experiences provided cultural context on Dutch society and international collaboration through Art and Law. It also offered a chance for group reflection at Scheveningen Beach.

Crucially, the SummerAcademy’s success rested on its dialogical approach: relationships flourished, fostering growth and genuine exchange. The presence of lecturers and participants from Eastern Europe in the Netherlands, allowed polarities between Eastern and Western Europe, to be explored in both theory and lived reality. Lectures and participants from Asia and South America living in Europe also provided an outside-in perspective to our exchanges.

Learning4unity

Mariënkroon itself proved to be the ideal setting — tranquil and green, nurturing both the formal and informal activities. Moments of academic inquiry blended seamlessly with artistic and practical personal exploration, echoing the week’s central theme.

In sum, SummerAcademy 2025 was more than a series of lectures or workshops; it was a vibrant, living dialogue reflective of the spirit of learning4unity. The quality of relationships and the depth of mutual learning demonstrated the value of engaging with polarities in a truly interdisciplinary way.

For anyone seeking both intellectual growth and authentic human connection, this week showed that the SummerAcademy stands as a model of how learning environments can catalyze personal, academic, and intercultural transformation.

Autor: Etienne Freléchoz