Beth Lew-Williams

Beth Lew-Williams (2026)

Elizabeth Lew-Williams is a historian and professor of Asian American history at Princeton University, the first ever appointed by the school. Her research focuses on Asian American studies, migration, ethnic studies, violence, and the history of the U.S. West.

Biography

Lew-Williams received a Ph.D. in history from Stanford University in 2010. Her dissertation was titled The Chinese Must Go: Immigration, Deportation, and Violence in the American West, 1882-1892.

In 2012, Lew-Williams became a faculty fellow at Northwestern University. She is the author of The Chinese Must Go: Violence, Exclusion and the Making of the Alien in America.

Recognition

In 2026, Lew-Williams won the Bancroft Prize for John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life Under American Racial Law.

References

  1. ↑ "Princeton hires first professor of Asian-American history - the Daily Princetonian". Archived from the original on May 7, 2014. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  2. ↑ "Beth Lew-Williams | Department of History". history.princeton.edu. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  3. 1 2 "Elizabeth Lew-Williams F'12, F'10". www.acls.org. Archived from the original on May 21, 2021. Retrieved May 6, 2014.
  4. ↑ "The Chinese Must Go — Beth Lew-Williams | Harvard University Press". www.hup.harvard.edu. Retrieved May 12, 2018.
  5. ↑ Schuessler, Jennifer (March 12, 2026). "Histories of Native American Treaties and Anti-Chinese Violence Win Bancroft Prize". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved May 22, 2026.