On leave 2023-2024

Erika Lee is the Bae Family Professor of History and Radcliffe Alumnae Professor at Harvard University. She researches and teaches the histories of the United States, with emphases on immigration and Asian American history and the histories of race, xenophobia, law, gender, and society. A past president of the Organization of American Historians, she is currently the Pitt Professor of American History and Institutions at Cambridge University in the United Kingdom in 2023-2024. Beginning in September, she will serve as the Pforzheimer Director of the Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America at Harvard.

Lee’s award-winning books include: At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943 (University of North Carolina Press, 2003), Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America (co-authored with Judy Yung, Oxford University Press, 2010), The Making of Asian America: A History (Simon & Schuster, 2015; 2021) and America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States (Basic Books, 2019, 2021). Named to many best books lists and identified as an essential book illuminating the Trump era and the 2020 elections, America for Americans won the American Book Award and the Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, as well as other honors. It was recently re-published with a new epilogue on xenophobia and racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Making of Asian America was also recently republished with a new postscript about the latest campaigns against Asian Americans and served as the basis for the Peabody Award-winning PBS film series Asian Americans. Her essays have appeared in over three dozen journals and anthologies, including the Journal of American History, the instant New York Times bestselling book Myth America: Historians Take on the Biggest Lies and Legends About Our Past (2023), and Our Voices, Our Histories: Asian American and Pacific Islander Women (2020). Her new book, Made in Asian America: A History for Young People (co-authored with three-time Newbery honor award recipient Christina Soontornvat) will be published by Harper Collins in May 2024.

Before arriving at Harvard, Lee was a Regents Professor and Director of the Immigration History Research Center at the University of Minnesota, where she co-founded three major digital humanities projects: Immigrant Stories, #ImmigrationSyllabus, and Immigrants in COVID America. She has been the recipient of numerous fellowships and awards for her scholarship and advocacy, including the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship, an honorary degree from Tufts University, the Immigrant Heritage Award from the Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, the Pioneer Award from OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates, and the Champion for Justice Award from the Chinese American Museum of Los Angeles. Lee was recently elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and the American Antiquarian Society and testified before Congress in its historic hearings on anti-Asian discrimination and violence. She is a regular commentator in the media, including featured appearances in the PBS film series “Asian Americans” and interviews with CNN, PBS NewsHour, National Public Radio, the New York Times, and more. Her opinion pieces have been published in the Washington Post, Time, the New York Daily News, USA Today, The Hill, and the Los Angeles Times. Lee serves as a board member of Refugees International and an advisory council member of The Asian American Foundation.

If you would like to reach Erika Lee for a speaking engagement outside of Harvard University, please contact Rolisa Tutwyler at CCMNT Speakers: rtutwyler@ccmntspeakers.com