Foster Duckworth

Foster Duckworth is an M.A. student studying modern American-Japanese transnational history, focusing on race and identity, Ainu indigenous history, Japanese colonialism, and West-East knowledge transfer. He is interested in applications of Global Indigenous frameworks to better understand colonial dynamics in places like Hokkaido, and to better support present-day decolonial practices in Archives and Public History. 

Foster has his B.A. 's in History and Japanese Studies and a Graduate Certificate in Japanese-English Translation from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. At UNC Charlotte, he received the Dean’s Prize for Best Honors Capstone Thesis of 2025 for his undergraduate honors thesis, “Indigenous Inspirations: The Role of Alcohol and Western Notions of Indigeneity in Japanese Colonialism and Ainu Life in Hokkaido, 1869-1899,” which he plans to expand upon at the graduate level. He also interned with their Special Collections & University Archives Department as an assistant to the oral historian and digital archivist, where he catalogued interviews and digital materials related to the city of Charlotte’s history.