Asians in Colorado with Dr. William Wei

William Wei is a professor of history at the University of Colorado at Boulder and the 2019-2020 Colorado State Historian. He is the author of Asians in Colorado: A History of Persecution and Perseverance in the Centennial State (University of Washington Press, 2016), which was selected as a finalist for the 2017 Colorado Authors’ League Award for General Non-Fiction. Offering a fresh perspective on how cycles of persecution are repeated, Wei reveals how the treatment of Asian Americans resonates with the experiences of other marginalized groups in American society. His study sheds light not only on the Asian American experience but also on the development of Colorado and the greater American West.  For today’s program, he will be discussing the experiences of Asian Americans since their arrival in the 19^th century to the present, with emphasis on Asian Coloradans.