Contact Information
Biography
John Vallier is curator for the UW Ethnomusicology Archives. With over 100,000 items and more than 1,500 collection, it's one of the largest ethnographic archives of its kind. As curator he stewards a range of archival functions—from preservation to access—for local and worldwide researchers alike. From 2023-2025 Vallier is also UW PI for Native Northwest Online, a multi-partner digital repatriation project led by Professor Kim Christen, Washington State University. Native Northwest Online is UW Libraries' largest preservation and repatriation project to date.
Vallier holds a full-time tenured appointment in Libraries Special Collections, as well as adjunct and affiliate faculty positions in Ethnomusicology, CHID, Honors and Museology. As faculty he offers courses on a range of topics, including music of Seattle, time-based media preservation, remix, and archival repatriation.
Prior to coming to UW, Vallier was UCLA’s ethnomusicology archivist (2002-2006) where he oversaw community outreach grants and the first GRAMMY Foundation funded Indigenous sound recording repatriation project. Prior to that he was a soundtrack composer for Activision Blizzard and a drummer for various bands. More information available here.