Dr. Tory čınus (Johnston)
Position
Status
Joining IGOV July 1, 2026
Credentials
PhD (UC Davis)
Area of expertise
Indigenous sound and music, Coast Salish studies, Indigenous governance, sound and media, intertribal music practices
Dr. Tory čınus (Johnston) is a kwinaył/Coast Salish scholar of sound and music, guitarist, part-time lecturer and co-host of Sounds of Survivance, the global Indigenous music show at Seattle-based listener-powered radio station, KEXP. He received his PhD in Native American Studies at UC Davis in 2025. Dr. čınus's work explores sound and music through principles of Indigenous nationhood, the sensorial, and the technological through the (re)constitution of sound media and modalities of Indigenous Governance and self-determination.
Dr. čınus centers kwinaył/Coast Salish logics and case studies including the tribal canoe journey, intertribal music-making and audio production, and relational materialities as instrumentalities to demonstrate how the sounded and the governed aspects of Indigenous life are mutually constitutive along our past, present and future.