Raisa Foster

Raisa Foster is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Tampere's Faculty of Education and Culture, leading the Re-Connect / Re-collect project on Cold War-era childhood memories through arts-based methodologies. She concurrently holds a five-year docentship in dance pedagogy at the University of the Arts Helsinki, recognizing her expertise in eco-social scholarship despite no formal employment tie.

Her academic foundation includes:

• Master's in Finnish Language and Literature (2001)
• PhD from University of Tampere (2013) for The Pedagogy of Recognition: Dancing Identity and Mutuality

Foster's research pioneers eco-social dance pedagogy, arguing that corporeal engagement with the more-than-human world is essential for ecological crisis resolution. Through projects like Art-Eco (2015-2017), she develops frameworks where dance pedagogy transcends artistic instruction to dismantle binaries (culture/nature, subject/object). Her current work explores collaborative memory practices as catalysts for ethical relationships with ecological systems, emphasizing that humans' forgotten bodily existence underpins ecological destruction.

As principal investigator for Re-Connect / Re-collect and leader of Art-Eco, Foster secures research funding to advance interdisciplinary methodologies. While expressing interest in thesis supervision at the University of the Arts Helsinki, no formal advisees are documented in available materials.