Professor Foster has taught in The College of the University of Chicago as a William Rainey Harper Postdoctoral Instructor.  At the University of Rochester, he has served as Mercer Brugler Distinguished Teaching Professor and in 2008 he was awarded the Goergen Award for Distinguished Achievement and Artistry in Undergraduate Teaching.  Professor Foster has an appointment in the Graduate Program in Visual and Cultural Studies in which he is a core faculty member.  He has been a visiting professor at the Australian National University, Cambridge University and L’École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Prof. Foster has done research in Papua New Guinea since 1984.  His research has been supported by the U.S. Department of Education, the National Science Foundation, the Australian-American Educational Foundation, the American Council of Learned Societies, the Spencer Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Research Interests: Political economy; material culture; globalization; corporations; commercial media; mobile phones; Papua New Guinea, Melanesia