Tol Foster, Assistant Professor of American Studies

Contact Information

Greenlaw Hall 516, CB #3520
University of North Carolina
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3520
(608) 332-8651
tolfoster@gmail.com

Education

Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2006
M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1998
B.A., Oklahoma State University-Stillwater, 1997

Research Interests and Honors

Tol Foster (Mvskoke Creek, Oklahoma) received his MA and Ph.D. from the English Department (focusing on American Indian and American Literatures) at the University of Wisconsin as an Advanced Opportunity Fellow. Before that he graduated with a degree in English at Oklahoma State University.

Tol is working on a manuscript based on his dissertation "Dividing Canaan: Oklahoma Writers and the Multicultural Frontier." In that project, Foster argues that after the legal incorporation of Indian Territory into the United States, African-Americans and Native Americans crafted a rhetorical space to argue for an inclusive America based on their own terms and concepts. In expanding the dissertation, Foster hopes to provide a persuasive example of a new self-critical regionalism that could serve as a bridge between American Indian and American studies. Among the writers considered in the study are Will Rogers, John Joseph Mathews, Melvin Tolson, Ralph Ellison, Joy Harjo, Woody Guthrie, and Joe Brainard.

Foster's area of interest include American Indian Literature and Film, new Western History, regionalism, comparative indigenous studies, critical theory, experimental and indigenous poetry, federal Indian law, Indian economic development, cultural geography, ecological theory, and American Indian contemporary art, particularly as is practiced in Oklahoma.

Courses

Fall 2008

• AMST 290: Intro to American Indian Literature (currently satisfying the following approaches and connections requirements: LA NA US)

Spring 2009 (proposed but not finalized)

• AMST 338 American Indian Novels (currently satisfying the following approaches and connections requirements: under university review)
• AMST ?: American Indian Poetry (currently satisfying the following approaches and connections requirements: under university review)