Dr. Ato Quayson

Biography

Ato Quayson is the Jean G. Morris M. Doyle Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, and Professor of English at Stanford University, specializing in African and African American Studies, as well as Comparative Literature. He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Ghana and obtained his Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge. Quayson has held esteemed positions, including a Junior Research Fellowship at Wolfson College, Oxford and Reader in Commonwealth Postcolonial Literature at the University of Cambridge from 1995 to 2005. He was also the inaugural Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies at the University of Toronto from 2005 to 2017 and served as a Professor of English at New York University from 2017 to 2019. His scholarly contributions are extensive, with six monographs and ten edited volumes to his name, focusing on themes in postcolonial literature and urban studies. Quayson has received several honors, including Fellowships from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the British Academy, and has served as President of the African Studies Association. He continues to write and teach, exploring the intersections of literature, identity, and cultural transitions in the postcolonial context.

Research Interests