This course was designed by three medical doctors who also have background in anthropology, philosophy, ecology, and environmental humanities, and are involved in music, expressive dance, and nature education.

Lydie Fialová, Ph.D., M.D., M.Sc., B.A.

Kateřina Maděryčová, M.D.

Michael van Beinum, MBChB, Ph.D., M. Phil., M. Litt., B.Sc.

The course was offered at the Third Medical Faculty of the Charles University in Prague in 2024, with the participation of thoughtful and wonderfully creative students from Japan, Nepal, India, Norway, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Slovakia, and Czechia: Adam, Anna, Annkatrin, Arushi, Ayaka, Barbora, Bjørn, Caroline, Dominik, Emmanuella, Filip, Hana, Jakub, Javier, Jonáš, Lilla, Lucie, Marek, Marek, Marek, Marie, Markéta, Matyáš, Mikuláš, Nina, Odin, Richard, Shuvangini, Tobiáš. For each session, two or three participants presented their questions for discussion, and we have included many of them in the ‘reading’ section alongside ours. Some of their final works are presented in the ‘creating’ section. We express our deepest thanks for their contributions!

Our course was accompanied by three joint weekends of conversations, nature walks, workshops, film screenings, and music sessions late into the night. Special thanks to our friend and colleague Dr. Marie Bourne who joined us for the course and helped to organize the weekends, Dr. Alžběta Procházková for her workshop on landscape ecology, Mikuláš Římánek on ornithology, Dr. Kateřina Maděryčová on embodiment and movement, and Dr. Michael van Beinum on bird listening, foraging, and creating a wildlife garden in Scotland! And finally, thanks to our hosts at Želichov farm, Irena and Jan Pešoutovi, who shared with us the beautiful environment they created – and entrusted us with replanting trees and taking stones out of the fields – it was a wonderful experience!

The creation of this website was kindly supported by Professor Sabine Gabrysch, M.D., Ph.D. from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and Heidelberg Institute of Global Health, as a resource for teaching of planetary health and ecological humanities.

The ownership of the artworks remain solely with the authors.

This website was created by Dr. Lydie Fialová.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts! Our email is being.alive.earth[AT]protonmail.com