VICTORIA FOSTER

Victoria's research involves working with marginalised groups to explore social justice issues, including environmental concerns, and to provide critiques of policy initiatives. She has a particular interest in arts-based methodologies underpinned by feminist epistemology and her book, Collaborative Arts-based Research for Social Justice, provides a rationale for employing this approach in community settings. Victoria has been working in this field for two decades. She was the recipient of an ESRC CASE award for her doctoral research and an ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship. She has worked on large scale NIHR-funded research as well as a range of smaller projects which recently have involved collaboration with West Lancashire Borough Council, Wigan Council and a number of local social enterprises including Burscough Community Farm, Wigan and Leigh Community Charity and Made in WN8.

Victoria is currently the UK Principal Investigator for the three-year Trans-Atlantic Platform research project, ‘Exploring the Role of Adaptive Capacity on Democratic Performance’ (2022-2025). This is headed by Professor Tom Bryer at the University of Central Florida and also includes partners in Canada and Poland. She is Co-Investigator on the one-year AHRC-funded project, ‘Active and Creative Communities Arts Development: Social Prescribing, Sustainable Strategic Planning and Breaking Down Barriers across Sectors in North Lanarkshire’. This collaborative knowledge exchange project is led by Dr Marisa de Andrade at the University of Edinburgh and involves eight local, regional and national multi-sectoral partners.

Victoria is Visiting Professor of Community-Engaged Scholarship at the University of Central Florida Downtown. She is Associate Director of the Institute for Social Responsibility (ISR) and a Co-lead of SustainNET at Edge Hill University. She is HEA Senior Fellow D3 SFHEA.