I’m Joe Hagerty, an Upstate New Yorker once described as a “singer-songwriter zookeeper.”

I’m a third-year undergraduate and Stamps Scholar at Dartmouth College pursuing a double major in Music and Evolutionary Biology/Ecology, and researching vocalization patterns in north-temperature songbirds, including rhythm and pitch, to improve our evolutionary understanding of bioacoustics and musical properties in the natural world.

I’m interested in pursuing a JD or PhD after undergrad. I’m a nerd for all things zoology and paleontology, and alongside ecological research I’m an avid musician honing my craft, with plans of studying classical vocal performance in Vienna, Austria this Spring 2026.

By fusing my love of the natural world and the arts, I want to uncover the origins of music in relation to language, studying across the fields of music, history, anthropology, biology, neuroscience, and linguistics. My work has applications to acoustic conservation biology and to our creative culture and sound production more broadly.

I’m specifically interested in animal behavior, from passerine songbirds to primates to big cats, and the fossil record and the evolution of sound as a form of communication.

Outside of my studies and musical pursuits, I’m an outdoors, distance running, and triathlon enthusiast.