Photographer, musician and environmentalist, Chris Zatarain is interested in how art and music enter into dialogue with people and the planet.
He is a first-year PhD student in Applied Intercultural Arts Research. He earned his master’s in the same discipline from the University of Arizona along with bachelor’s degrees in music and environmental studies.
When asked about the PhD program, he said “It’s rooted in arts-based research and intercultural study, working within communities and understanding how arts can play a role in interdisciplinary research and creating meaningful, real world impact.”
He said this program interested him for his graduate studies because he was attracted to the program’s philosophy, experimental nature, and the freedom to explore different subjects related to his research interests. In his program he enjoys taking courses across the arts and sciences, from ethnomusicology, to environmental history and ecology.
“This area really encourages knowing and developing an understanding of a lot of different things, and being in different rooms outside of your own discipline, which I think is really important,” he said.
University Fellow
Most recently, Zatarain is a University Fellow at the U of A Graduate College.
The University Fellows Program is a very competitive interdisciplinary fellowship for top incoming graduate students. Recipients receive a competitive stipend, professional development, mentoring and community engagement opportunities.
“It’s just really nice to kind of build community with people from across campus,” Zatarain said.
His research interests lie in music, environmental arts and humanities. He’s always been passionate about the environment, and was inspired by the work of his teacher, Dr. Sara Fraker, professor of oboe in the School of Music, which engages environment through music performance.
Working alongside Sara Fraker, Chris recently served as a graduate assistant on the Watershed Soundscape Project, supporting and documenting the multidisciplinary 2025-2026 AIR Theme Grant funded project exploring the Santa Cruz Watershed through music, art, and science.
“I realized I don’t necessarily have to have a traditional career in classical music, and I don’t just have to play Mozart,” he said. “My artistry can also engage bigger ideas about the environment and about nature.”
Past University Fellows features
- Beihua Guo | Exploring hidden histories through art
- Ashley Martin-Casler | Research into community health with music
- Lori Hennessy | Shaping inclusive cello pedagogy
- Fátima Corona del Toro | The power to choose
- Gloria Orozco Dorado | Rocking the clarinet
- Savanah Pennell | Arts research with social justice
One of his primary areas of interest is the field of ecomusicology, which examines how musical practices can relate to ecology, culture and the environment.
“I’m interested in how we can engage and ask questions about environment, climate, land, and relationships between human and non-human beings through performance, through music, and through sonic practices.”
Zatarain is currently studying how other musicians and sonic practitioners explore and communicate climate and environmental change in their music., while also developing and engaging in his own creative practice.
“As a performer, I’m really interested in creating and performing music that communicates critical narratives about ecology and climate.”
Sonic Representations
Looking ahead toward his dissertation, Zatarain is currently in the ‘brainstorming’ stage. He is interested in examining public land management and use from the perspectives of various stakeholders, such as the mining industry, indigenous communities, ranchers, recreational users, and nonhuman beings. He hopes to bring together local musicians and community members to develop a multimodal work that highlights the many ways that land is used and valued by different communities.
“I’m interested in sonic and musical representation as a form of sensory environmental storytelling that communicates human-nature relationships,” said Zatarain.
He has done similar work for his master’s thesis, where he focused on storytelling practices linked to econarratology—a field which combines the study of literature and environment, examining how narrative form and storytelling techniques shape human perceptions of the environment. For his thesis research, he worked with community members to imagine climate futures through creative writing practices.
Environmental Arts
In the future, Zatarain is interested in a career as a professor teaching environmental arts and humanities, or developing creative programming in an environmentally-focused public education space such as a botanical garden.
His advice for arts students wanting to expand their artist roles: look for places that your art can be used in service of others, and know that your art can help others to see and sense knowledge about the world in unique and powerful ways, which is an asset to everyone.
“It’s important to be in conversation with and to work in service of others through your art,” he said.
2024-2025
Beihua Guo (art)
Ashley Martin-Casler (AIAR*)
2023-2024
Lori Hennessy (music)
Maya Jackson (art)
Savanah Pennell (art)
2022-2023
Maria Fatima Corona del Toro (music)
Jenna Green (art)
Mary Monaghan (music)
Claire Taylor (art)
2021-2022
Anupam Singh (art)
Gloria Ines Orozco Dorado (music)
2020-2021
Emmy Tisdel (music)
Mariel Miranda (art)
2019-2020
Raven Moffett (art)
Lucy Mugambi (art)
2018-2019
Jared Baker (dance)
Rebecca Thompson (art/AIAR)
2017-2018
Matthew Crosby (music)
Maria del Mar Navarro (art/AIAR)
2016-2017
Khaled Jarrar (art)
Juan Mejia (music)
2015-2016
Misha Burstein (art)
Stephanie Hoeckley (music)
2014-2015
Terrence Pitt-Brooke (music)
Danielle Sheather (dance)
* Applied Intercultural Arts Research Graduate Interdisciplinary Program