Natasha Abrol

Mighty Oak Monday: Natasha Abrol

02/27/2023

Major: Master’s Degree in Environmental Studies
Hometown: New Delhi, India

Natasha Abrol felt something inside her shift after listening to a podcast featuring Dr. Robin Wall Kimmerer, a SUNY Distinguished Teaching Professor of Environmental Biology and the Founder and Director of the Center for Native Peoples and the Environment at ESF.

“I was enamored by her openness on talking about arts and sciences in the same breath,” she said. “It was a totally different and fresh way of thinking about being a scientist.”

A few years later, Natasha followed Dr. Kimmerer’s voice to Syracuse and enrolled in ESF’s Environmental Studies graduate program, where she learned how to support communities working to achieve sustainability. As a part of her studies, she’s using writing and photography to tell stories of human-animal interconnectedness while shedding light on critical environmental crises. Through this project, her goal is to show and tell animals’ perspectives and drive oneness and connection of humans and the natural world.

“Sometimes it is hard to make sense of the times we live in,” she said. “I try to look at the reality of our world and reimagine it through inclusive and largely queer perspectives.”

Natasha started taking photos of extinct or nearly extinct wildlife to illustrate how humans are altering and damaging their home through drought, habitat loss, hunger, and pollution. She says art helps her see just how interconnected science and art truly are, and how using different mediums can help make messages stick with different people.  

Natasha would like to thank all those at the Syracuse University Newhouse School and the Digital Storytelling School at ESF for supporting her art. 

Learn more about ESF’s master’s degree in General Environmental Studies.