Gregg Mitman
Position title: Vilas Research and William Coleman Professor of History of Science, Medical History, and Environmental Studies
Email: gmitman@med.wisc.edu
Phone: 608.262.9140
Address:
Office: 1415 Medical Sciences Center
Curriculum Vitae (pdf) | Website
Joint Appointment: Medical History & Bioethics
Biography
My teaching and research interests span environmental history, the history of science, medical history, and the visual culture of science and medicine, with a focus on the United States in the world. In particular, I seek to understand the ways in which political economy, cultural values and beliefs, and scientific knowledge intersect in shaping the interactions between people and environments over time. Over the past few years, I have been at work on a multimedia project—a film, book, and public history website—exploring the history and legacy of the Firestone Plantations Company in Liberia.
Education
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1988
M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1984
B.S., Dalhousie University, 1981
Books
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Gregg Mitman. Empire of Rubber: Firestone’s Scramble for Land and Power in Liberia. The New Press, 2021. -
Gregg Mitman (Co-editor), Marco Armiero (Co-editor), and Robert S. Emmett (Co-editor). Future Remains: A Cabinet of Curiosities for the Anthropocene. University of Chicago Press, 2018. -
Gregg Mitman (Co-editor), and Kelley Wilder (Co-editor). Documenting the World: Film, Photography, and the Scientific Record. University of Chicago Press, 2016. -
Gregg Mitman. Breathing Space: How Allergies Shape Our Lives and Landscapes. Yale University Press, 2007. -
Lorraine Daston (Editor), and Gregg Mitman (Editor). Thinking With Animals: New Perspectives on Anthropomorphism. Columbia University Press, 2005. -
Gregg Mitman (Co-editor), Michelle Murphy (Co-editor), and Christopher Sellers (Co-editor). Landscapes of Exposure: Knowledge and Illness in Modern Environments. Vol. Osiris, Volume 19, University of Chicago Press, 2004. -
Gregg Mitman. Reel Nature: America’s Romance With Wildlife on Film. Harvard University Press, 1999. -
Gregg Mitman. The State of Nature: Ecology, Community, and American Social Thought, 1900-1950. University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Advisor To
Selected Awards
- Andrew W. Carnegie Fellowship, 2017-2018
- John S. Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, 2004–2005.
- Winner of the 2012 William H. Welch Medal from the American Association for the History of Medicine (Breathing Space)
- 2008 Outstanding Achievement Award, Wisconsin Library Association (Breathing Space)
- Winner of the 1994 Gustave O. Arlt Award in the Humanities from the Council of Graduate Schools. (The State of Nature)
- Winner of the 2000 Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize from the History of Science Society. (Reel Nature)
History Courses
- History / History of Science 125 – Green Screen: Environmental Perspectives through Film – Syllabus 2021 (pdf)
- History of Science 513 – Environment and Health in Global Perspective – Syllabus 2016 (pdf)
- History 705 – Commodities and Disease in Global History – Syllabus 2017 (pdf)