Vicente L. Rafael was born and raised in Manila, Philippines. He is Professor of History and Southeast Asian Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle.

Rafael is the author of several books and articles on the history and cultural politics of the Philippines. Most recently, he has published The Sovereign Trickster: Death and Laughter in the Age of Duterte. All of his books have been published by Duke University Press in the US and Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines.

He is a regular contributor to various newspapers and journals, including Rappler, The Philippine Daily Inquirer, Dissent, and Social Text and Public Culture, Comparative Studies in Society and History, Journal of Asian Studies, American Historical Review,and many others.

He is the recipient of a number of awards from various institutions, including the Mellon Foundation, John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Social Science Research Council (New York), and the American Council of Learned Societies. He continues to do research on the Philippines and Southeast Asia, as well as the US.