Adapted from a story by Jamie Saxon, Office of Communications, on the University homepage
Beth Lew-Williams (History) has been awarded the Bancroft Prize in American History and Diplomacy for her book, “John Doe Chinaman: A Forgotten History of Chinese Life Under American Racial Law.”
The Bancroft Prize, which is considered one of the most prestigious prizes in the field of American history, is administered annually by Columbia University. “The winners are judged in terms of scope, significance, depth of research, and richness of interpretation that they present in the areas of American history and diplomacy,” according to the prize organizers.
Lew-Williams’ book, which was supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, traces the history of legal discrimination against Chinese immigrants in the U.S.
Lew-Williams, who has taught at Princeton since 2014, is an expert on Asian American history and a historian of migration and race. She is the director of the Program in Asian American Studies. In 2026-27, she will serve as an Old Dominion Research Professor in the Humanities, where she will work on a book-length history of alienage in the United States.
Read the full story on the University homepage.
Read a Q&A with Beth Lew-Williams on the Humanities Council’s Faculty Bookshelf.
