Vaughn Rasberry in Morocco and the Canary Islands

Vaughn Rasberry is Associate Professor of English and Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Education at Stanford University, where he teaches African diaspora literature and theories of modernity. He joined Stanford in 2010. As a Fulbright scholar in 2008–09, he taught in the American Studies department at the Humboldt University Berlin and lectured on African American literature throughout Germany. Vaughn also teaches in collaboration with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (CCSRE) and the programs in Modern Thought and Literature, African and African American Studies, and American Studies. He is the author of Race and the Totalitarian Century: Geopolitics in the Black Literary Imagination (Harvard UP, 2016), winner of the Ralph Bunche Award from the American Political Science Association and an American Book Award from the Before Columbus Foundation.

Over the past decade, Vaughn has travelled extensively in Morocco and deepened his knowledge of this beautiful and fascinating country. Recently, he co-hosted a conference in Agadir on the topic Pan-Africanism in the Maghreb and taught a global seminar to a group of Stanford students in Rabat. His current research focuses on the politics of the Arabic language in Morocco and North Africa and its relationship to Morocco's history of involvement in the Trans-Saharan slave trade. He remains enamored of Morocco's gorgeous landscapes, stunning architecture, diverse and multilingual society, traditions of hospitality, and rich literary and artistic culture.

During this program his lectures will cover topics such as language politics and multilingualism in Morocco, the Trans-Saharan slave trade, contemporary literature, and current challenges of migration.

At Stanford

• Associate Vice Provost for Graduate Education (2022–present)

• Associate Professor of English (2017–present)

• Associate Professor of African and African American Studies (2017–present)

• Assistant Professor (2010–2017)

• Director in the program in African and African American Studies and the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (2009–2014)

Education

• Ph.D., The University of Chicago, English language and literature (2009)

• M.A., The University of Chicago, Humanities (2001)

• B.A., Howard University, English language and literature (2000)