Katie Foster is a postdoc with the Network for Engineering with Nature (N-EWN) in the Institute for Resilient Infrastructure Systems and Department of Anthropology. Her current research examines equity, risk, and trade-offs in natural infrastructure development for water management challenges (e.g., drought, flooding, sea level rise) in the US.
She is a member of Don Nelson's Humans and Environmental Change Lab.
Katie is also an alumna of the Integrative Conservation and Anthropology Ph.D. program and Laura German's Institutions & Governance Lab at the University of Georgia.
Her dissertation research explored the intersections of Indigenous rights policy and environmental governance in Peru. This work combined ethnographic, institutional, and policy analyses to examine how policy at the international level gets transformed or "translated" as it gets implemented at lower levels of governance, and the implications of these transformations on local peoples and ecologies.
Research
- Environmental Justice
- Political Ecology
- Environmental Governance
- Human Rights
Selected Publications
2021 W. DePuy, J. Weger, L.C. Foster, A. Bonanno, S. Kumar, K. Lear, R. Basilio, and L. German. (2021) Environmental Governance: Broadening Ontological Spaces for a More Livable World. Environment and Planning: Nature and Space, 1-29.
2020 L. German, A. Bonanno, L.C. Foster, and L. Cotula. (2020) “Inclusive Business” in Agriculture: Evidence from the evolution of agricultural value chains. World Development 134: 105018, 1-21.
Grants
2021 National Science Foundation - DDRIG ($25,000)
2021 Fulbright-Hays – DDRA ($23,550)
2021 Social Science Research Council - IDRF ($14,500)
2021 US Dept. of Education - FLAS ($7,500)
2020 US Dept. of Education - FLAS ($7,500)
2018 UGA - Innovative & Interdisciplinary Research Grant ($1250)
2018 UGA - Willson Center for Humanities Grant ($1000)
2018 UGA - Rhoades Pre-Dissertation Research Grant ($750)
2018 UGA - LACSI Summer Research Grant ($1250)
2017 UGA - LACSI Summer Research Grant ($1000)
2017 UGA - Graduate School Summer Research Grant ($950)
Education
Ph.D. 2023 - University of Georgia, Athens, GA (Integrative Conservation & Anthropology)
B.A. 2012 - Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX (Animal Behavior & Environmental Studies)
