Thomas Barker is an honorary associate professor in the Humanities Research Centre appointed in 2022 and formerly head of school and associate professor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia. He has held visiting positions at UCLA, National Chengchi University, Universitas Indonesia, and the National University of Singapore. In 2019 he was an Asia Research Scholar at the National Library of Australia.

Dr Barker is the author of Indonesian Cinema after the New Order: Going Mainstream (2019, HKU Press) and the co-editor of Southeast Asia on Screen: From Independence to Financial Crisis (1945-1998) (2020, AUP). He has written on topics in cultural sociology focussing on the Southeast Asia screen industries, including on creative migration, censorship and regulation, Islamic pop culture, and streaming platforms.

History of Indonesian cinema 1950-1966

Censorship and creative freedom in Malaysia

Pencak silat and transnational cinema in Indonesia