Cecil Foster (born September 26, 1954) is a Canadian novelist and essayist. Born in Bridgetown, Barbados, he emigrated to Canada in 1979. Currently, he lives in Rockwood, Ontario and serves as a professor of sociology and anthropology at the University of Guelph. His most recent book, Where Race Does Not Matter (2004), explores the potential of multiculturalism in Canada. It also expands on some of his earlier work that deals with issues of race in his own life as well as in the history of Canada.
Foster completed his PhD, a phenomenological exploration of the concept of Blackness in Canada, at York University in 2003. His philosophical influences include Hegel, Marx, Alexandre Kojčve, Will Kymlicka, Charles Taylor, and former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.