Barbara Browning (born December 7, 1961, in Madison, Wisconsin) is an American academic, novelist,[1] dancer, and cultural critic.

[3] Her first book, Samba: Resistance in Motion (1995),[4] was an ethnographic account of her experiences studying and performing Brazilian dance.

It was the 1996 recipient of the de la Torre Bueno Prize for an outstanding publication in the field of dance scholarship.

[9] Her third novel, The Gift, is similarly accompanied by a series of dance videos posted online, ostensibly by the narrator.

Readers of Browning's academic writing have noted that in addition to representing "a pioneering effort in bringing discussions about the popular culture of Brazil into the North American academy,"[10] it evidences "the imagination of a novelist.