About

About Me

Vincent Barletta is an author and tenured associate professor of Comparative Literature and Iberian and Latin American Cultures at Stanford University. He is also a research associate at the university's Europe Center and an associate faculty in the Center for African Studies, the Center for Latin American studies, and the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies.

Barletta's primary areas of research and teaching include medieval and early modern Iberian literature, Iberian Islam, Portuguese literature, literature and linguistic anthropology, and literature and philosophy.

Barletta has written several books. His latest is Rhythm: Form and Dispossession (Chicago, 2020). The book discusses rhythm through three historical moments from Ancient Greece to current times. Other books are Covert Gestures, Crypto-Islamic Literature as Cultural Practice in Early Modern Spain (Univ of Minnesota, 2005), and Death in Babylon: Alexander the Great and Iberian Empire in the Muslim Orient (Chicago, 2010). He won the La corónica book prize in 2007 for Covert Gestures.

Vincent Barletta also has been a John Simon Guggenheim Fellow and a 2019-2020 recipient of the Kay Philips Award for Outstanding Adult Ally, Youth Community Service. He also has won numerous research and teaching collaboration grants.

In 2001, while at the University of California at Los Angeles, Vincent Barletta completed post-doctoral studies in the Department of Anthropology. He received a Ph.D. in Hispanic Languages and Literatures in 1998.

He served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, teaching English as a Second Language to speakers of Moroccan Arabic and French from 1989-90. He obtained his BA in English with honors from St. Mary's College of California.

Barletta has taught in Stanford’s Department of Comparative Literature since 2013 and the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures since 2007. He has also taught courses at Stanford for the Department of Religious Studies, the Program in Jewish Studies, the Program in African Studies, and the Department of Art History.

Before coming to Stanford University, Professor Barletta worked as an assistant professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese from 2001-2006.

With a love for languages, Vincent Barletta has superior proficiency in English, Portuguese, and Spanish. He also has advanced proficiency in French and Italian and has studied years of Hebrew, Latin, Classical Greek, and Arabic as part of his research. His ability to learn new languages is exceptional, and he is constantly furthering his education through learning.

Regarding accomplishments, Vincent Barletta is most proud of the grant he received from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2021. He received the Stanford Enhanced Sabbatical Fellowship in Humanities and Arts that same year. He has been awarded the Stanford DLCL Collaborative Teaching Grant multiple times, as well as the Stanford DLCL Research Grant, most recently in 2019, for the “South of the South” project.

Professor Barletta received the Kay Philips Award for Outstanding Adult Ally, Youth Community Service (a community service organization in the San Francisco Bay Area) in 2020, and he was on the faculty roster for the Fulbright Specialist Program in American Studies from 2016-18. He has an extensive teaching career, as well as one in publishing. His writing can be found worldwide, and he always looks for new ways to contribute.

As a university professor, Barletta brings extensive experience, dedication, and professionalism to the students he teaches and mentors. He believes in advocating for first-generation college students and underrepresented minorities. He is also committed to developing links between the humanities (especially the study of literature) and the environment. Climate change is a problem that will impact the lives of young people today, and he understands the importance of continuing to bring awareness to the subject.

When he is not in the classroom, Vincent Barletta also devotes his time and energy to improving the lives of workers, and he is a tireless advocate for measures that protect workers' rights. Safe working conditions are essential to the health and wellness of everyone, and he is an advocate for those who don't have a voice.

His love of languages brought Barletta to poetry, and he loves to read and write poetry in his free time. He is also a longtime jazz enthusiast who shares his love for the art form with others.

Vincent Barletta is a mentor, professor, and prolific writer. His work spans decades and can be found worldwide on a wide range of topics. His contributions to the academic world of linguistics and literature are expansive and published in many languages. Barletta is connected to his community, and he is always looking for ways to connect others to literature and the world around them.