Lauren Ravalico, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of French | Chair of the French, Francophone, and Italian Studies Department | Affiliate Faculty - Women's and Gender Studies
Ravalico specializes in French Romanticism and Exoticism. Her scholarship has appeared in The Comparatist, French Studies, George Sand Studies, Nineteenth-Century French Studies, Women in French, and the edited volume Staël’s Philosophy of the Passions. Her current research examines feminized space in 18th- and 19th-century cultural production.
She likes experimenting with 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. Her related work on critical food studies was published in Teaching Diversity and Inclusion: Examples from a French-Speaking Classroom (Routledge, 2022). She recently curated several “talk and taste” cultural events on campus, supported by a Mellon Foundation grant. She also designed a French 101 first-year experience course featuring field trips to French and West African restaurants in ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø.
In spring 2026, she will co-teach a first-year experience course with a spring break trip, FYET 116: Culinary Roots and Routes on the French Caribbean Island of Guadeloupe.
She speaks French and Italian, and has also studied German, Latin, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. She also claims fluency in the non-verbal language of her dog.
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