Important Dates

Science Communication and Public Engagement: Screening of OVERBURDEN

4 November | 5pm | Research Centre for Africa (FZA), University of Bayreuth | English | Hybrid event

The Cluster’s Research Section ''Ecologies'' invites you to an evening of documentary film, discussion, and critical reflection on conservation, local communities, and extractive industries.

We are delighted to welcome Gregg Mitman from the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at LMU Munich for a screening of his award-winning feature documentary OVERBURDEN. https://overburdenfilm.com/ The film screening will be followed by a critical discussion with Prof. Mitman, conservation biologist Shadrach Kerwillain, and Sandra Calkins, alongside other members of the Cluster.

About the film

OVERBURDEN takes viewers to the mist-shrouded Nimba Mountains on the Liberia–Guinea border, a landscape of extraordinary biodiversity shaped by a long history of mining and conservation. The documentary follows rare wildlife and local communities as they reclaim a landscape scarred by extractive activities.

At the heart of the film are the tensions between conservation, local communities, and extractive industries. OVERBURDEN also raises critical questions about the politics of conservation and the ways in which conservation narratives can be mobilised to legitimise new mining ventures.

Film screening and discussion

Following the screening, Gregg Mitman and Shadrach Kerwillain will join a critical discussion on the themes raised by the documentary. Shadrach Kerwillain, a conservation biologist, participated in the film.

The discussion will bring together perspectives from environmental history, conservation biology, social science, and the broader Cluster community, creating space to reflect on the possibilities and challenges of communicating complex environmental issues to wider publics.

Join us

The event will be held in English and is planned as a hybrid event, allowing participants from Bayreuth and beyond to take part. We particularly welcome researchers, students, and anyone interested in environmental issues, science communication, conservation, and the social and political dimensions of extractive industries.

The event will take place in the conference room at the Research Centre for Africa (FZA).

Date: 4 November, 5pm Venue: Research Centre for Africa (FZA), University of Bayreuth

Format: Hybrid Language: English

Further information on the programme will follow, biographical notes below:

Prof. Gregg Mitman from the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society at LMU Munich is a historian of science, medicine, and the environment whose interdisciplinary scholarship explores the relationships among environmental change, health, disease, biodiversity, and political economy. He is an ERC Professor at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU) and is affiliated with the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society. He is also William Coleman Emeritus Professor of History, Medical History, and Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

Mitman’s research examines how ecological transformation, resource extraction, colonialism, and scientific and medical practices shape human and environmental health. His recent work focuses particularly on West Africa and Liberia, including the history of rubber production, disease ecologies, and global health. His book Empire of Rubber: Firestone’s Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia and his documentaries The Land Beneath Our Feet and In the Shadow of Ebola bring historical scholarship into dialogue with contemporary environmental and health challenges. His work has received numerous awards and fellowships.

Dr. Shadrach Kerwillain is a Liberian conservation biologist and interdisciplinary researcher whose work focuses on biodiversity conservation, forest governance, environmental sustainability, and the relationship between conservation and local livelihoods. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Liberia and an MPhil in Conservation Leadership from the University of Cambridge. He has more than a decade of professional experience in biodiversity conservation and natural-resource management, including protected-area management, transboundary conservation, REDD+, community-based natural-resource management, and capacity development. Before joining the Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society (RCC) at LMU Munich, he worked as a Landscape Manager with Fauna & Flora International in southeastern Liberia. At RCC, he pursued doctoral research within the ProEnviron program on Fragments of the Forest: Hot Zones, Disease Ecologies, and the Changing Landscape of Environment and Health in West Africa. His research connects forest history, conservation, disease ecologies, and socio-environmental change in Liberia. In 2025, he contributed to academic discussions on biodiversity and health and participated in documentary filmmaking as a conservation biologist. He gave a lecture at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (BAdW) Cluster cooperation Day in 2025 and took part in the film Overburden as conservation biologist.