Joshua Foust

Joshua Foust is a tenure-track assistant professor teaching classes in public relations practice and theory. Foust arrived at Syracuse from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he has taught social media strategy and public relations practice since 2020. His professional experience includes executive positions in nonprofit communications, a research fellowship at a national security think tank, speechwriting and management consulting.

His research focuses on how governments use video games for strategic communication, in addition to projects about discourses of artificial intelligence and executive communication practices. He specializes in qualitative and critical approaches, from in-depth interviews to grounded theory and thematic analysis aimed at understanding the use of language, its influence on normative expectations, and the challenges of establishing shared meaning in contested spaces. He has published articles about gender and military Esports, gender-based work practices in the games industry, public sphere theory and executive communication practices. He also writes widely for popular audiences, discussing policy in publications focused on national security. He welcomes inquiries from PhD students interested in researching any of these areas.

Foust is the co-editor of "Public Relations in Times of Dissensus: Narratives, Artifacts, and the Challenges of Meaning", published in 2026 by Bloomsbury.  He also won a top paper award for his study on queer theory and public relations in the video games industry at the 2023 AEJMC conference. He is also a member of the International Communication Association, where he is a member of sustainable resourcing committee. 

Prior to joining Newhouse, Foust earned a Ph.D. in strategic communication from the University of Colorado Boulder, an M.A. in public relations at Johns Hopkins University and a B.A. in international relations at the University of Colorado Boulder.