Featuring Majka Burhardt ’98, professional climber, conservation entrepreneur, author, and filmmaker

Majka Burhardt ’98 is a professional climber, certified climbing guide, conservation entrepreneur, author, and filmmaker; she is also the Founder and Executive Director of Legado, an international organization that works to shift conservation to advance climate justice by working in partnership with indigenous peoples and local communities in Mozambique, Kenya, Peru, and beyond. Her work and projects have been featured in The New York Times, Fortune, The Economist, Outside Magazine, NPR and more, her book Vertical Ethiopia was shortlisted for the 2008 Banff Book Award, and her articles have appeared in publications including Business Insider, Afar, Men’s Health, Skiing, Backpacker, Patagonia, Alpinist, The Explorers Journal, and Climbing. Majka currently lives with her twins and her husband, internationally certified mountain guide Peter Doucette, in Jackson, New Hampshire. To learn more, visit: Majkaburhardt.com.

In conversation with Andrea Digiorgio, Lecturer, Princeton Writing Program; Department of Anthropology

Andrea DiGiorgio is a biological anthropologist, primatologist, and conservation biologist whose research focuses on the spaces where humans and non-human primates interact. Her primary research investigates how wild primates get required nutrients in an increasingly anthropogenic landscape, and specifically how female primates cope with disturbance and still reproduce. She is currently studying the impacts of near-annual forest fires in Borneo on wild orangutans, and how female Chacma baboons are able to gestate and lactate in extremely depauperate environments of the Namibian deserts. Her third active research project examines the negative impacts of social media on wildlife conservation efforts. For her doctoral research, she spent a year living in the rainforest of Borneo studying how orangutans balance their diet and what this means for conservation efforts. She teaches Behavioral Biology of Women and Sustainable Futures at Princeton University. At home, Andrea is interested in horror and its use in conveying feminist, social, and ecological messages. Her other interests include her rescue Italian greyhounds and punk music.