David Ambaras

David Ambaras is an Associate Professor in the Department of History at North Carolina State University. His research focuses on the social history of modern Japan and its empire, emphasizing transgressive encounters at imperial borders. He is known for works such as Japan's Imperial Underworlds: Intimate Encounters at the Borders of Empire (2018) and Bad Youth: Juvenile Delinquency and the Politics of Everyday Life in Modern Japan (2006). His work examines marginalized figures like child traffickers, pirates, and intermarried couples to challenge conventional narratives of imperial territoriality.

Ambaras co-directs the digital project Bodies and Structures, which explores spatial formations in modern East Asia. He holds a Ph.D. from Princeton University and degrees from the University of Tokyo, the Institut des Langues et Civilisations Orientales (Paris), and Columbia University. His fellowships include support from the National Humanities Center and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

His research spans themes of class formation, wartime mobilization, and the intersection of global and local histories. Ambaras regularly contributes to interdisciplinary dialogues on empire, migration, and the cultural politics of identity in East Asia.