Between 1989 and 1990, he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco, teaching English as a Second Language to Moroccan Arabic and French speakers. He graduated with honors from St. Mary's College of California with a Bachelor of Arts in English.

Since 2013, Barletta has taught in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Department of Iberian and Latin American Cultures at Stanford University. In addition, he has taught at Stanford's Department of Religious Studies, Program in Jewish Studies, Program in African Studies, and Department of Art History.