Michael Dylan Foster is a professor of

Folklore Folklore is shared by a particular group of people; it encompasses the traditions common to that culture, subculture or group. This includes oral traditions such as tales, legends, proverbs and jokes. They include material culture, ranging ...

and the current Chair of the East Asian Languages and Cultures department at the

University of California, Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a public land-grant research university near Davis, California. Named a Public Ivy, it is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University of California system. The institut ...

. He has taught in some capacity since 1989, starting in Japan teaching the English language on the Japanese Exchange and Teaching Programme, returning to the United States to teach Japanese folklore and literature. In addition to his academic career, which has mainly focused on Japanese literature and culture, he has published several short stories, articles, and novels. Much of his work on Japanese folklore has centered on tales of the supernatural—the strange and the weird. That is the subject of his first book, ''Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yôkai'', which received the Chicago Folklore Prize in 2009. He is the current editor of the

Journal of Folklore Research The ''Journal of Folklore Research: An International Journal of Folklore and Ethnomusicology'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on folklore, folklife, and ethnomusicology. It was established in 1942 and is published ...

Education

Foster studied English in his undergraduate institution of

Wesleyan University Wesleyan University ( ) is a Private university, private liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Middletown, Connecticut. Founded in 1831 as a Men's colleges in the United States, men's college under the auspices of the Methodist Epis ...

, and graduated with Honors. For his Master's he studied Japanese Literature and Folklore at

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where his folklore studies were influenced by

Alan Dundes Alan Dundes (September 8, 1934 – March 30, 2005) was an American folklorist. He spent much of his career as a professional academic at the University of California, Berkeley and published his ideas in a wide range of books and articles. H ...

. He also did intensive language study in

Yokohama, Japan is the second-largest city in Japan by population and the most populous municipality of Japan. It is the capital city and the most populous city in Kanagawa Prefecture, with a 2020 population of 3.8 million. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of To ...

and studied History and Folklore at

Kanagawa University , abbreviated to is a private university in Japan. The main campus is located in Rokkakubashi, Kanagawa-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture. History The university was founded in 1928 by as . It was an evening school for the working youth. In 1 ...

. He earned his Ph.D. from

Stanford University Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...

, in the department of Asian Languages: Japanese.

Published works

;Books *''Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yōkai.'' University of California Press (2009) *''The Book of Yōkai: Mysterious Creatures of Japanese Folklore.'' University of California Press (2015). * ;Articles *“Haunted Travelogue: Hometowns, Ghost Towns, and Memories of War.” ''Mechademia'' 4.1 (2009) 164-181. * “What time is this picture? Cameraphones, tourism, and the digital gaze in Japan.” ''Social Identities: Journal for the Study of Race, Nation and Culture'' Vol. 15, Issue 3 (May 2009): 351-372. *“The Otherworlds of Mizuki Shigeru.” ''Mechademia Vol. 3: Limits of the Human'' (2008): 8-28. *“The Question of the Slit-Mouthed Woman: Contemporary Legend, the Beauty Industry, and Women’s Weekly Magazines in Japan.” ''Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society'', vol. 32, no. 3 (Spring 2007): 699-726. *“Strange Games and Enchanted Science: The Mystery of Kokkuri.” ''The Journal of Asian Studies'' 65: 2 (May 2006): 251-275. *“Walking in the City with Natsume Sōseki: The Metaphorical Landscape in ‘Koto no sorane.’” ''Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies'', vol. 6 (Summer 2005): 137-146. *“Watashi, kirei? Josei shūkanshi ni mirareru ‘Kuchi-sake-onna’ m I pretty? The ‘Kuchi-sake-onna’ legend as seen in women's weekly magazines” Ed. Komatsu Kazuhiko, ''Nihon yōkaigaku taizen'' (Tokyo: Shōgakkan, 2003): 635-667. *“Creating Monsters: Toriyama Sekien and the Encyclopedic Imagination.”'' Information des Akademischen Arbeitskreises'' Japan: Minikomi (University of Vienna) no. 64 (2002/2): 7-9. *“The Metamorphosis of the Kappa: Transformation of Folklore to Folklorism in Japan.” ''Asian Folklore Studies'', vol. 57 (Fall 1998): 1-24. *“Kindai ni okeru kappa no henyō: kappa to mizu no kankei o megutte xploring the Waters: Modern Transformations of the Kappa” ''Rekishi minzoku shiryōgaku kenkū'' (History and Folk Culture Studies), vol. 2 (1997): 161-74. ;Short stories *“Looking Back.” ''Greensboro Review'' no. 67 (Spring 2000): 107-115. *“Old Mack” and “Late Night With Me.” ''Wisconsin Review'' vol. 32, no. 2 (1998): 11-14. *“Sepia.” ''Southern Humanities Review'' vol. 29, no. 4 (1995): 345-359; winner of Hoepfner Award for best short story in Southern Humanities Review (1995). *“Toothpicks.” ''Northwest Review'' vol. 30, no. 2 (1992): 59-66.

Research interests

Michael Foster's interests include Japanese folklore, history, festival, literature, supernatural, and popular culture. He has been is working on a book entitled ''Visiting Strangers: Tourists, Ethnographers, and Gods,'' which will look at tourism, festivals, and ethnographers in Japan.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Foster, Michael Wesleyan University alumni American folklorists Living people University of California, Berkeley alumni Kanagawa University alumni Stanford University alumni Indiana University faculty Year of birth missing (living people) American Japanologists