Our People

Pavel has worked for more than two decades in higher education in America and has always been drawn to colleges and universities whose curriculum fully integrates learning with practice and thinking with embodiment.

Having taught and served as Dean for nearly 15 years at Vermont’s Sterling College, Pavel brings a depth of experience to Schumacher College’s unique approach to experiential learning. While pursuing research in ecologically-minded curriculum design and teaching courses in environmental philosophy, Pavel is also a passionate endurance and adventure runner. Over the past five years through a project called Climate Run, Pavel has covered hundreds of miles in the Arctic and subarctic on foot in order to bring attention to the connections between our bodies and the more-than-human world in the face of a rapidly changing climate.

Pavel holds a Ph.D. in English and is the author of many articles, chapters, and two books: Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest: Region, Heritage, and Environment in the Rural Northeast (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2010); and This Vast Book of Nature: Writing the Landscape of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, 1784-1911 (Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 2006). He is currently working on a book titled Resilience in the North: Adventure, Endurance, and the Limits of the Human, which threads together personal narrative and observation with environmental philosophy and reflections on what it means to be human.

Books

Cenkl, Pavel. Resilience in the North: Adventure, Endurance, and the Limits of the Human (in process)

Cenkl, Pavel and Satish Kumar, editors. Transformative Learning: Reflections on 30 Years of Head, Heart, and Hands at Schumacher College (New Society Publishers, 2021)

Cenkl, Pavel, editor. Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest Region, Heritage, and Environment in the Rural Northeast (University of Iowa Press, 2010)

Cenkl, Pavel. This Vast Book of Nature Writing the Landscape of New Hampshire’s White Mountains, 1784-1911 (University of Iowa Press, 2006)

Chapters and Articles

“Lessons from the Periphery.” Regenerative Learning, edited by Satish Kumar, (Global Resilience Publishing, 2022)

“Regenerative Learning.” Transformative Learning: Reflections on 30 Years of Head, Heart, and Hands at Schumacher College, edited by Pavel Cenkl and Satish Kumar, (New Society Publishing, 2021), pp. 257-265

“Reading Climate Change and Work in the Circumpolar North.” The Bioregional Imagination: Literature, Ecology, and Place. Eds. Tom Lynch, Cheryll Glotfelty, and Karla Armbruster (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2012), pp. 295-311

“Narrative Currency in a Changing Climate: Grounding the Arctic amid Shifting Terrain.” Postcolonial Green. Eds. Alex Hunt and Bonnie Roos (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2010), pp. 137-156

“Finding One’s Way.” Beyond the Notches: Stories of Place in New Hampshire’s North Country. Eds. John R. Harris, Kay Morgan, and Mike Dickerman (Littleton, NH: Bondcliff Books, 2011)

“Regenerative Practice,” Invited talk, Environmental Intelligence Doctoral Training, UKRI Centre and University of Exeter. Dartington Hall, 17 May 2022

“Sustainable Practice for Transformative Action,” Keynote Address. British Association for Sustainable Sport Annual Conference, Principality Stadium, Cardiff, Wales, 17 May 2022

“Embodied Ecology / Deep Encounters in Hybrid Place(s),” Invited talk with R. Sweeney and M. Metenier, Re-imagining Education Conference 2.0, 24-27 February 2022

“Radical Transdisciplinarity in Embodied Learning,” Invited talk, Radical Interdisciplinarity (Maaike Bleeker and Iris van der Tuin), Utrecht University, February 2022

“Hybrid Experiential Learning,” Invited talk, University of Plymouth Academic Partner Forum, November 2021

“An Ecosemiotic Model for Learning: Designing experiential curriculum in a distributed globally learning network,” Biosemiotics Gathering October 2021

A series of more than two dozen unique  “Climate Run 2015: Iceland” and ‘Climate Run 2017: Arctic Trail’ presentations between 2015 and 2019

“Ecology as a Model for Teaching,” SXSWedu, Austin, TX. March 2017

“Climate Run: Athletes for Climate Resilience,” University Centre of the Westfjords, Isafjordur, Iceland, June 23, 2015

“Climate Run: Athletes for Climate Resilience,” New Narratives of the Postcolonial Arctic: Arctic Encounters Conference, Roskilde, Denmark, May 28, 2015

“Teaching the Local in an Age of Globalization.” Invited roundtable participant at The Keene State College 6th Biennial Symposium, “From Local to Global.” November 2009

“Reflections on What We Mean by a Healthy Environment.” Invited speaker at The Vermont Osher Institute. November 2009.

“Bridging Disciplinary Islands: A Roundtable Discussion.” Presentation at the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment, Victoria, BC. June 2009

“Farmstead Nation: The Culture of Work in Agricultural Communities.” Invited talk at the New England and American Studies Program, University of Southern Maine. November 2008.

The Human Show; interview with Corina Enache. 12 November 2021 (posted 3 May 2022) Listen >

Experiential Learning in the Digital Age; interview with Sophie Bailey. The EdTech Podcast. 21 June 2021 Listen >

More than Human, conversation with Trewin Restorick; interview by Amanda Carpenter.  The Planet Pod. 26 May 2021 Listen >

Happy Teachers will Change the World: Educación Positiva. 19 May 2021 Listen >

Schumacher College with Pavel Cenkl and Morag Gamble. Episode 39: Sense-Making in a Changing World. 29 April 2021 Listen >

Pavel Cenkl: Climate Run. Smart Athlete Podcast. Episode 57. 19 June 2020 Listen >

Running, ecology and landscapes. Wild Running: Trail Running and SwimRun Adventures. 19 June 2020 Listen >

Schumacher College: Education for ReGeneration. Conversation with Christian Wahl. 30 May 2020 Listen >

Research Interests

• Curriculum design and development
• Distributed global learning networks
• Ecological modeling for curriculum and organisational design
• Applications of environmental philosophy
• Environmental humanities
• Climate change, ecological and human resilience
• Endurance athletics and movement practice

Courses & Programmes Developed and Delivered

• MA Movement, Mind and Ecology
• Resilience, Complexity, and Flow
• Posthumanism
• Applications of Environmental Philosophy
• Ecological and Cultural Resilience in Arctic Norway
• Global Field Study: Iceland
• Nature and Culture in the Northern Forest
• Stories and Storytelling of the North
• Film and Literature of the North
• Black River Voices Oral History Project
• Literature and the Land
• News Media and Environmental Issues
• Region, Heritage, and the Politics of Place
• Nature Writing
• Writing and Communications
• Adventure Literature
• Rock & Ice Climbing
• Trail Running