Following our hearts in 2024

2023 was a year of book launches and introducing Follow Your Heart (FYH) to family, friends, colleagues, and communities that hold a special place in each of the authors’ hearts. But it didn’t stop there. The year 2024 was filled with so many initiatives where hearts were followed and the love and ideas from this book were infused across different spaces and resources across the globe.

At the beginning of the year, the book Emotional and Ecological Literacy for a More Sustainable Society was published, co-edited by Margherita Poto, Giuliana Panieri, and Emily Murray. This creation was an output of the Ocean Interconnectedness Workshop held in Tromso, Norway at the UiT Arctic University of Norway in Autumn 2023. This co-edited book features multiple chapters on FYH and makes the formal link between emotional literacy, ecological literacy and the ocean. 

The FYH book was used as an educational resource and learning tool in the courses of Administrative Law and Environmental Law, respectively at the Department of Management and Department of Earth Sciences, University of Turin, Italy, during Spring 2024. The courses were co-developed by Margherita Poto and Giuliana Panieri and resulted in many student-led co-created projects, including the ones found on the ECOCARE and OIN blogs. FYH was also a resource used to inspire the development of the thematic area of emotional literacy in the preparation of the EUGLOH project. The course was programmed during 2024 and came to fruition with university students in January 2025, which you can read more about here.

Spring 2024 also brought FYH to Copenhagen, DK with the Ocean Incubator Network (OIN) workshop where researchers from many different backgrounds all with a passion for protecting the oceans came together to co-create an ocean literacy toolkit. Out of this ocean and love-inspired workshop came an open access co-edited book by Margherita and Laura called the Ocean Incubator Network Learning Toolkit. 

During Autumn 2024, FYH travelled to Brazil where the book project was featured in presentations and workshops with collaborating partners. Margherita presented the FYH resource in the occasion of the HKDIR-organized event in the G20 delegation at the Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC), and during a cycle of classes at the Universidade Federal do Amazonas (UFAM), in Manaus, Brazil. 

Then, FYH inspired the emotional literacy component at the DAAD Summer School 2024 which was a co-organized academic and research event by University of Bayreuth, University of Bari sede di Taranto, and University of Turin in Bari, Italy. This 4-day experiential and co-created learning experience focused on caring for ocean rights, human rights of people at sea, and living in connection with the ocean. This event was coordinated by Eva Lohse, Annamaria Bonomo, Laura Vita, Margherita Poto and Giuliana Panieri.

Asides from many places and spaces that FYH showed up in 2024, it also inspired the activities developed by intern and practicum students from the University of Turin and McMaster University (Musra Ozsoy, Romina Bazrgar, Mojgan Pooladi, Gabrielle Natividad).

From Brazil to Italy, and many hearts in between. Thank you to everyone who was part of such an exciting year for the FYH project and we cannot wait to see what 2025 has in store!