Lee has studied at the University of Toronto and University of California, Berkeley, where he received a Doctor of Philosophy Presently, he holds a position at the University of Toronto as Professor Emeritus of Anthropology. In 2011 he co-authored the children"s book Africans Thought of lieutenant: Amazing Innovations with Bathseba Opini, Doctor of Philosophy
Lee is also currently researching issues concerning the indigenous people of Botswana and Namibia, particularly their ecology and history. With Irven DeVore, Lee was co-organiser of the 1966 University of Chicago Symposium on "Manitoba the Hunter". Lee co-edited with Richard Daly The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Hunter-Gatherers, which was first published in 1999.
In 2003, Anthropologica, the journal of the Canadian Anthropology Society, dedicated an issue to Lee"s oeuvre.
He has also been a referee for various publications (American Anthropologist, Current Anthropology) and granting agencies (Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Wenner-Gren Foundation and the National Science Foundation).
Lee has been active in several professional associations including: the Association of American Anthropologists for which he organized several meetings and symposiums. Founding member of Anthropologists for Radical Political Change. Past president of the Canadian Anthropologist Society and the Canadian Ethnology Society.
