Esther Johnson

Esther Johnson is a Professor of Film and Media Arts at Sheffield Hallam University's Department of Art and Design, within the College of Social Sciences and Arts. She holds an MA from the Royal College of Art and is a Fellow of The Higher Education Academy. Her work explores societal change through documentary film, oral histories, and archival material, focusing on marginalized narratives. Key projects include DUST & METAL (Vietnamese cultural heritage via motorbike narratives), Liberation Radio (Vietnam War deserters' oral histories), and SHIPS in the SKY (Hull's architectural heritage). Supported by major institutions like the Arts Council England and British Council, her films have screened globally at venues such as the Barbican and Tate.

Her teaching includes courses on artists' film, documentary production, and archival use. She curates film programs and has collaborated internationally with institutions like the Vietnam Film Institute and Squeaky Wheel Film and Media Art Center. Supervising postgraduate research on topics like Palestinian visual narratives and communication disabilities in film, she also chairs the Art Design and Media Research Centre and Culture and Creativity Research Institute.