Jessica Lee

Jessica Lee is a Lecturer in History at Columbia University, specializing in U.S. immigration and citizenship. She holds a B.A. from Bryn Mawr College and a Ph.D. in History from Columbia, where she studied under Mae Ngai. Her research focuses on the intersection of citizenship as a legal, political, and social construct, particularly examining Mussolini’s influence on Italian American political identity before WWII. She teaches courses like Immigration and Citizenship in American History and Immigrant New York.

Dr. Lee leads Freedom and Citizenship, a nonprofit bringing underserved NYC students to Columbia to study citizenship from antiquity to modernity. She co-chairs the Knowledge for Freedom initiative, assisting universities nationwide in replicating this model. Her work emphasizes civic education and community engagement.

Her scholarship includes analyses of fascist historiography, immigrant classification systems, and the role of urban universities in public service. She advises senior theses in the Center for American Studies but no formal grant details are disclosed.