From his birth on August 26, 1961, in Ghana, Ato Quayson has forged a remarkable career transcending borders and disciplines. At Stanford University, he serves as the chair of the English Department and the newly formed Department of African and African American Studies. He holds the esteemed position of a professor of English.

Quayson's academic journey began with an honors degree from the University of Ghana, a testament to his early intellectual prowess. He further honed his skills, culminating in his Ph.D. studies at Cambridge University in 1995. His academic trajectory took him to Oxford University, where he served as a Junior Research Fellow, before returning to Cambridge to assume the positions of Reader in Commonwealth and Postcolonial Studies and Fellow at Pembroke College. From 1998 to 2005, he oversaw the Centre for African Studies at Cambridge, solidifying his reputation in the academic world.

Quayson's academic journey has been marked by his contributions to various esteemed institutions. Before his tenure at Stanford, he held the positions of Professor of English at the University of Toronto and Director of the Centre for Diaspora and Transnational Studies. His versatility is evident in his role as a professor of African and Postcolonial literature at NYU and a professor of English at Toronto. His contributions were recognized with the highest award bestowed by the University of Toronto—the title of University Professor 2016.

Quayson's research has garnered global acclaim, underscoring his significant contributions to academia. His intellectual breadth is evident in his diverse areas of study, including urban studies, literary theory and criticism, diasporic and transnational studies, comparative literature, and postcolonial and multinational literature. 

His worldwide acclaim was further boosted when he was named a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy in 2019, and fellowships from esteemed institutions like the Royal Society of Canada and the Ghana Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Quayson's scholarly output is prolific, with six monographs and eleven collections of essays. Notable among these are Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of Representation, Postcolonialism: Theory, Practice, or Process?, and Strategic Transformations in Nigerian Writing. His work, Oxford Street, Accra: City Life and the Itineraries of Transnationalism, was honored with the Urban History Association's 2015 Greatest Book Prize and featured in The Guardian's 2014 list of the greatest books on cities.

Cambridge University Press published Quayson's most recent work, Tragedy and Postcolonial Literature, which won the 2022 Warren-Brooks Prize for Literary Criticism. His current works include Exile and Diaspora in African Literature and Accra Chic: A Locational History of Fashion in Accra.

Quayson's work has been supported by scholarships from Harvard University's W. E. B. Du Bois Institute and Australia's National University's Research Centre in the Humanities. He has given numerous lectures in various parts of the world, including Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Americas. He has also been a visiting professor at Wellesley College, where he was named after Mary L. Cornille and in Turkey, Australia, and Israel.

Professor Ato Quayson's distinguished career demonstrates his interes in education and his enormous influence on the fields of literature and the humanities.