RSF book The Asian American Achievement Paradox (2015), by Jennifer Lee (UC Irvine) and Min Zhou (UCLA), has won the 2017 Association for Asian American Studies Award for Best Book in the Social Sciences. The book is also the winner of three awards from the American Sociological Association, including the Pierre Bourdieu Award, the Thomas and Znaniecki Book Award, and the Asia and Asian America Section Book Award.

In their book, Lee and Zhou offer a compelling account of the academic achievement of the children of Asian immigrants—which pundits have long attributed to unique cultural values. Drawing on in-depth interviews with the adult children of Chinese immigrants and Vietnamese refugees and survey data, Lee and Zhou bridge sociology and social psychology to correct this myth and explain how immigration laws, institutions, and culture interact to foster high achievement among certain Asian American groups. As Lee told the UCI School of Sciences, “We wrote The Asian American Achievement Paradox with a commitment to dispel misconceptions about the drivers of Asian American educational achievement, so to have our work acknowledged is especially meaningful.”

Read more about The Asian American Achievement Paradox or purchase a copy of the book.