Erika Lee is the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair and Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota, formally the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, (UMN Twin Cities, the U of M, or Minnesota) is a public land-grant research university in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul, Minnesota, United States. ...

and an award-winning non-fiction writer.

Early life

Lee is the granddaughter of Chinese immigrants. She grew up in the

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

Career

Lee graduated with a degree in history at

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...

in 1991 before continuing her studies at the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

, where she earned an M.A. in 1993 and a PhD in 1998. She has authored four books on American history, which have received several awards. ''At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882–1943'' (2003) won the 2003 Theodore Saloutos prize for the best book in immigration studies and the 2003 History Book Award from the

Association for Asian American Studies The Association for Asian American Studies was founded in 1979 as the Association for Asian/Pacific American Studies. The name was changed in 1982. The organization was established to promote teaching and research in Asian American studies. Its o ...

. ''Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America'' (2010) received the Caughey Prize in Western History from the

Western History Association The Western History Association (WHA), a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, was founded in 1961 at Santa Fe, New Mexico by Ray Allen Billington et al. Included in the field of study are the American West and western Canada. The Western Histor ...

as well as the 2010 Adult Non-Fiction Award in Asian Pacific American Literature from the

American Library Association The American Library Association (ALA) is a nonprofit organization based in the United States that promotes libraries and library education internationally. It is the oldest and largest library association in the world, with 49,727 members ...

. ''The Making of Asian America: A History'' (2016) won the 2015–2016 Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature in Adult Non-Fiction from the

Asian Pacific American Librarians Association The Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), also known as the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association,Yamashita, Kenneth A.(2000), Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association— A History of APALA and Its Founders, Library Tr ...

''America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States'' (2019) won the 2020

American Book Awards The American Book Award is an American literary award that annually recognizes a set of books and people for "outstanding literary achievement". According to the 2010 awards press release, it is "a writers' award given by other writers" and "the ...

from the

Before Columbus Foundation The Before Columbus Foundation is a nonprofit organization founded in 1976 by Ishmael Reed, "dedicated to the promotion and dissemination of contemporary American multicultural literature". The Foundation makes annual awards for books published in ...

Published works

Books

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Contributions

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Journal articles

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Awards

* 2018 Andrew Carnegie Fellowship * 2018 Distinguished Historian Award from the Society for Historians of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era * 2018 Distinguished Lecturer in the Organization of American Historians

References

External links

Faculty Page – University of MinnesotaErika Lee Homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lee, Erika University of Minnesota faculty People from San Francisco University of California, Berkeley alumni American women writers Women historians American women academics Historians from California American writers of Asian descent