Ato Quayson

Ato Quayson (born 26 August 1961)^[1] is a Ghanaian literary critic and Professor of English at Stanford University where he acts as the current chair of the department.^[2] He is also the chair of the newly established Department of African and African American Studies.^[3] He was formerly a Professor of English at New York University (NYU),^[4] and before that was University Professor of English and inaugural Director of the Centre for Diaspora Studies at the University of Toronto.^[5] His writings on African literature, postcolonial studies, disability studies, urban studies and in literary theory have been widely published. He is a Fellow of the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences (2006) and the Royal Society of Canada (2013), and in 2019 was elected Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. He was Chief Examiner in English of the International Baccalaureate (2005–07), and has been a member of the Diaspora and Migrations Project Committee of the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) of the UK, and the European Research Council award grants panel on culture and cultural production (2011–2017). He is a former President of the African Studies Association.^[2]