Lauren Ravalico, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of French | Director of Women's and Gender Studies Program | Affiliate Faculty - Women's and Gender Studies
Ravalico specializes in feminist readings of French Romanticism and Exoticism. Her work has appeared in The Comparatist, George Sand Studies, Women in French, and Staël’s Philosophy of the Passions. Her current research examines feminized space in 18th- and 19th-century cultural production.
She focuses on high-impact teaching practices, often using food to enhance students' global perspectives, especially in language learning. Ravalico directed the "Global Foodways" initiative, supported by a South Carolina Humanities major grant, and her work on critical food studies was published in Teaching Diversity and Inclusion: Examples from a French-Speaking Classroom (Routledge, 2022).
Having secured a $100,000 Mellon Grant for the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, she oversees several collaborative projects with faculty, staff, and students that affirm multivocal humanities. Fluent in French and Italian, she has also studied German, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish.
Education
Ph.D., Harvard University
B.A., Cornell University
Honors and Awards
ExCEL Award, Outstanding Faculty Member in the School of Languages, Cultures, and World Affairs (2020)
Press and Media
The College Today: Mellon Foundation Award
The College Today: Beginning French Through Food
The College Today: Global Foodways Adds Cultural Perspective
Skirt! magazine: Global Foodways
Skirt! magazine: Praying for Surrender