[6] Professor Lee's interest lies in the history of Asians in the United States, specifically the racial formation of Chinese immigrants and their American-born offspring.
Lee explores the ways in which Chinese Americans invented Chinese-American identity and informal citizenship through social, cultural, and political institutions.
"[12] Historian Daniel E. Bender commends the collection Race, Nation and Empire in American History, edited by Lee alongside James T. Campbell and Matthew Pratt Guterl.
Bender asserts that "the book suggests new models of collaboration that address an ongoing crisis in edited collection publishing," its "cohesiveness" defined by its "complexity.
[15] Lee was awarded a Fulbright for the 2013–2014 academic year at the Research Institute for the Humanities, Chinese University of Hong Kong.