Joseph J. Foy is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, Law, and Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside. Foy is the editor of the books Homer Simpson Goes to Washington: American Politics through Popular Culture and SpongeBob SquarePants and Philosophy: Soaking Up Secrets Under the Sea. He also co-edited Homer Simpson Marches on Washington: Dissent through American Popular Culture and is currently working on a book exploring political theory in film, television, music, and consumer culture. Foy has written over a dozen chapters for edited volumes focusing on political and philosophical messages in popular culture artifacts such as True Blood, Star Trek, Avatar, The Hunger Games, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly, and the music of The Rolling Stones. In 2009, Foy received the John G. Cawelti Award for the best textbook on American and popular culture by the Popular Culture/American Culture Association. In 2010, as a political science professor at UW-Waukesha, he was presented with the Barrington-Musolf Faculty Research award given by the University of Wisconsin Colleges.
