Distinguished Fellow, Class of 2023
Jennifer Lee is the Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University and the 2022-23 Robbert Dijkgraaf Member at the Institute for Advanced Study. She is an award-winning author of four books, including The Asian American Achievement Paradox, The Diversity Paradox, Civility in the City, and Asian American Youth.
Dr. Lee’s research addresses questions about the implications of contemporary U.S. immigration—particularly Asian immigration—on the native-born population. She has studied this from a variety of analytical lenses, including immigrant entrepreneurship and ethnic conflict, intermarriage and multiracial identification, educational opportunities and outcomes, and the new culture war on affirmative action.
In her most recent project, she tackles the surge in anti-Asian violence that has affected 1 in 6 Asian American adults since the wake of COVID-19. To understand the present, Dr. Lee argues that we must confront the past, including an under-recognized legacy of anti-Asian violence, misogyny and exclusion that dates back more than 150 years, and is embedded in our laws, our institutions, and in our history of science and medicine. She recently presented this research to the Biden-Harris COVID-19 Health Equity Task Force.
Jennifer Lee is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Sociological Research Association. She serves on the Board of Trustees of the Russell Sage Foundation and the Obama Presidency Oral History. She has been a Fellow at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford, a Fellow at the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture at the University of Chicago, a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, and a Fulbright Scholar to Japan.
