Dr Sian Barber is a Reader in Film Studies at Queen’s University Belfast with expertise in British film history, censorship and controversy. She is the author of four monographs: Censoring the 1970s: The BBFC and the Decade that Taste Forgot, (2011), Capital, Culture and Creativity: The British Film Industry in the 1970s (2013), Using Film as a Source (2015) and Beyond the BBFC: local and regional film censorship in the UK (2025). She has also published in the Historical Journal of Film, Radio and Television, Media History, Cultural and Social History, Historical Research and the Journal of British Cinema and Television. 

She is a member of the EUscreen Foundation, a European consortium of archives, academics and technical partners which explores aspects of digital heritage, access and preservation, and a member of the Northern Ireland Moving Image Heritage & Archive working group.in 2025 she was elected as a council member of the International Association of Media History and a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society. She is also a member of the editorial board of the Journal of British Cinema and Television, and VIEW Journal of European Television History and Culture.

She is Athena SWAN co-champion for the School of Arts, English and Languages and the University Co-ordinator for the Humanities Access programmes run in collaboration with Belfast Metropolitan and South East Regional Colleges.