“[Learning history] shows us that we have the power to lay the foundation for a different kind of future, a brighter future, a more just future.”

—Dr. Ellen Wu

A specialist in twentieth century United States history, Dr. Ellen Wu is a nationally-recognized authority on Asian America, migration, race, and the “model minority myth.” She is Associate Professor of History at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Her first book, The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority, recounts the astonishing makeover of Asians in the United States from the “yellow peril” to “model minorities” in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Charting this transformation within the dual contexts of the United States’ global rise and the Black freedom movement, The Color of Success reveals that this far-reaching, politically charged process continues to have profound implications for how Americans understand race, opportunity, and nationhood. The Color of Success received the First Book Award, an Honorable Mention for the Theodore Saloutos Book Award from the Immigration and Ethnic History Society along with the History Book Award from the Association for Asian American Studies, and was recognized by the Obama Foundation as part of its AANHPI Heritage Month reading list.

Wu is currently finishing Overrepresented: The Surprising History of Asian Americans and Racial Justice (forthcoming from Princeton University Press), a new story about diversity, data, and democracy in the United States spanning World War II to the present day.

Overrepresented presents a deep dive into the history of the minority rights revolution from the vantage point of Asian American “influencers” who built a multigenerational ecosystem to exert governing power over institutional policies. Legions of standout dreamers and doers mobilized to tackle a vast array of issues, seeking just outcomes for Asian Americans—from fair employment laws, the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and K-12 school desegregation to affirmative action in hiring and university admissions, the census, social services for immigrants, policing, and hate crimes. Yet because they were pigeonholed as exceptional achievers, Asian Americans failed to secure widespread recognition as a “disadvantaged” racial group; instead, they were treated as “overrepresented” in elite institutions and white collar occupations, with no need for active interventions. Their embattled pursuit of recognition and resources as beleagured minorities both strengthened and fractured ties between Asian Americans and other people of color—and divided the Asian American community itself. In this unexpected account of racial justice, Wu demonstrates how much we miss when we see race as a fixed and predictable category, and that so-called “model minorities” can disrupt the political status quo, both advancing and undermining the unfinished work of racial justice.

Wu’s work has been recognized with fellowships from the Ford Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, the University of Texas at Austin’s Institute for Historical Studies, the University of Chicago’s Center for the Study of Race, Politics, and Culture, and New America. Her writing and speaking have been featured in a variety of academic and public-facing venues, including The Oxford Illustrated History of the United States, Modern American History, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, NPR’s Code Switch, TIME, TruTV’s investigative comedy series Adam Ruins Everything, the 2020 PBS documentary series Asian Americans, and the podcast Resilience hosted by Sharon MacMahon.

Wu is an elected member of the Society of American Historians. She served on the Indiana Advisory Committee for the United States Commission on Civil Rights for ten years and is a founding member of Hoosier Asian American Power.

For more information on Dr. Ellen Wu, please visit her on Bluesky.