Erika Lee

Erika Lee is the award-winning author of several works, including At America's Gates: Chinese Immigration during the Exclusion Era, 1882-1943, co-authored Angel Island: Immigrant Gateway to America, and numerous journal articles. She is the granddaughter of Chinese immigrants who entered the United States through both Angel Island and Ellis Island. She grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and received her PhD from the University of California at Berkeley. Passionate about preserving the histories of America's diverse immigrants, she gives presentations around the country and has written several articles and two award-winning books. She is the recipient of the Theodore Saloutos Prize in Immigration Studies, the History book award from the Association of Asian American Studies, the Non-Fiction Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature, and the Western History Association Caughey Prize. Erika teaches immigration history at the University of Minnesota, where she is also the Rudolph J. Vecoli Chair in Immigration History and Director of the Immigration History Research Center.