Follow Your Heart for Planetary Health

Follow Your Heart played a key role in the development of the Pathways to a healthier planet: New approaches through creativity and experiential learning EUGLOH course, initiated by the Faculty of Law, UiT Arctic University of Norway and in partnership with the University of Hamburg. Follow Your Heart was one of the main readings for this university-level course and inspired many students in their final co-created student-led projects.

The course ran during the first semester of 2025 and welcomed 20 students (aka multipotentialites) from many different educational and cultural backgrounds from both partner universities, and was coordinated by Margherita Paola Poto and Tanja Bogusz. Along with the course coordinators, the course was also taught by Laura Vita, Emily Murray, Nane Pelke and Giuliana Panieri. The teaching team brought their expertise in ecological and emotional literacy, marine social sciences, global health and law to share with students (and each other!) the ways in which planetary health, law and marine social sciences and the ocean are all interconnected. The course pushed disciplinary boundaries and encouraged students to think and work outside the siloes we often find ourselves working in.

In the end, the students came up with the most creative, inspiring projects to tackle different planetary health challenges while targeting various Sustainable Development Goals (see Agenda 2030) and grounding their approach in the courses 3 core principles: transdisciplinarity, co-creation and positionality.