Professor William Foster

I am a historian of twentieth-century Europe and its borderlands. My research focuses on how Europeans individually and collectively experienced 'great power' and 'superpower' rivalry and occupation on the continent from the First World War to the end of the Cold War. My current project examines constructed nationalisms, sport, conscription, cultural resistance and armed neutrality, especially in Nordic and Alpine areas. 

Externally, I am currently Associated Researcher at the Institute of European International Studies, University of Basel, Switzerland. I am also affiliated with the Research Council of Finland's Centres of Excellence in the History of Lived Experience [HEX], and Nationalism Research in the Humanities [NARS], both through Tampere University, Finland.