Dame Karin Judith Barber, DBE, FBA (born 2 July 1949) is a British cultural anthropologist and academic, who specialises in the Yoruba-speaking area of Nigeria.
[1][2] Barber then changed direction and studied social anthropology at University College London, completing a graduate diploma.
[1] She then undertook postgraduate research at the University of Ife in Nigeria, where she completed her Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree.
[1][2] Her research concerned the "role of oral poetic performance in everyday life" in Okuku, Osun State, Nigeria.
[2][3] In 1985, she moved back to the United Kingdom and joined the Centre of West African Studies of the University of Birmingham.
For the 1993/1994 academic year she was Preceptor of the Institute of Advanced Study and Research in the African Humanities at Northwestern University in Illinois, United States.
She specialises in the "Yoruba-speaking area of Nigeria" (the Yoruba people), and their culture, religion, and oral and written literature.