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Email: Ilaria.Ravazzolo@warwick.ac.uk

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Current PhD student & Graduate Teaching Assistant

Biography

Ilaria is a PhD candidate in Global Sustainable Development at the ¹û¶³´«Ã½, where she also works as a Graduate Teaching Assistant. She holds a BASc in Economic Studies and Global Sustainable Development and an MASc in Global Sustainable Development, both from ¹û¶³´«Ã½. Alongside her research and teaching, she is actively involved in supporting postgraduate researchers and fostering interdisciplinary academic communities.

Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender, food, identity and belonging, with a particular focus on women's everyday experiences, embodied knowledge and histories. Her doctoral research explores how Italian mothers living in Switzerland negotiate identity and belonging through everyday food labour and practices. Drawing on feminist theory, feminist food studies and oral history, her work examines the relationships between gendered labour, cultural identity and everyday life, while questioning dominant narratives and stereotypes surrounding women's domestic roles.

Ilaria is particularly interested in recognising and valuing women's voices, experiences and knowledge, both within academia and beyond. This commitment informs her research, teaching and wider academic engagement, including her role on the editorial board of , the journal of the Women's History Network. She is also involved in initiatives supporting postgraduate researchers, interdisciplinary exchange and inclusive academic communities, for example through her role as Co-Chair of the Society & Culture Spotlight ECR Network or as a blogger for the Doctoral College's PhD Life Blog.

Research Overview

Ilaria's doctoral research explores how Italian mothers living in Switzerland understand and negotiate identity and belonging through their everyday food labour. Situated at the intersection of feminist theory, food studies and oral history, the project examines how seemingly ordinary activities such as cooking, feeding others and sharing meals are shaped by gendered expectations, cultural narratives and social relationships. It approaches food not simply as a means of nourishment or cultural expression, but as a site where labour, identity, memory, care and belonging intersect.

The research draws on and contributes to the emerging framework of gastrofeminism, which foregrounds the gendered dimensions of food labour and practices while recognising everyday culinary experiences as important sources of knowledge. Bringing together insights from Marxist feminism, social reproduction theory, feminist food studies and other feminist traditions, the project critically examines how domestic food labour is naturalised, undervalued and frequently rendered invisible. It also explores the tensions between obligation and pleasure, responsibility and creativity, recognising that everyday food practices can simultaneously reproduce gendered inequalities and provide opportunities for personal expression, connection and meaning-making.

The study is situated within the context of Italian communities in Switzerland, where food can play an important role in negotiating cultural identity and belonging. Particular attention is paid to dominant representations of Italian femininity and motherhood, including the enduring stereotype of the Italian mamma, and to expectations surrounding the preservation and transmission of culinary traditions. Rather than treating Italian identity as fixed or homogeneous, the research explores how participants experience, negotiate and reinterpret cultural identities through their everyday food practices.

Methodologically, the project adopts a gastrofeminist oral history approach, centring participants' voices, lived experiences and embodied knowledge. Through oral history interviews, artefact elicitation and opportunities for participant observation, the research explores how memories, relationships and identities are expressed and negotiated through food. It also considers the kitchen and everyday culinary objects as important sites and sources of knowledge, challenging conventional hierarchies between academic expertise and lived experience. By approaching research as a relational and collaborative encounter, the project seeks to recognise the value of women's everyday histories and the knowledge embedded within them.

Ultimately, the research contributes to wider feminist debates on unpaid care labour, social reproduction and the recognition of women's experiences and knowledge. It also engages critically with the UN's Sustainable Development Goal 5, particularly Target 5.4 on unpaid care and domestic work, questioning approaches that prioritise economic recognition and redistribution without adequately accounting for the embodied, affective and relational dimensions of everyday labour.

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Academic Background

PhD Global Sustainable Development, ¹û¶³´«Ã½ (2024 - present)

• Thesis: 'Cooking Identity: A Gastrofeminist Oral History of Mothers' Belonging and Identity in their Everyday Food Labour'

MASc Global Sustainable Development, ¹û¶³´«Ã½ (2023 - 2024)

• Thesis: 'The Language of Integration: Exploring the Importance of Language in the Intergenerational Integration of Italians in Switzerland' under the supervision of Professor Stéphanie Panichelli-BatallaLink opens in a new window

BASc Economic Studies and Global Sustainable Development, ¹û¶³´«Ã½ (2020 - 2023)

• Thesis: 'Challenging the "Success Story" of Italian Integration in Switzerland: The Perspectives of Italian Women' under the supervision of Dr Maria GavrisLink opens in a new window

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Supervisors

• Dr Edward LovemanLink opens in a new window - Assistant Professor in Global Sustainable Development and Design Studies
• Professor Stéphanie Panichelli-BatallaLink opens in a new window - Professor in Global Sustainable Development and Academic Director for Sustainability
• Dr Gioia PanzarellaLink opens in a new window - Associate Professor in Global Sustainable Development

Research Interests

• Gender studies
• Social and emotional reproduction
• Everyday belonging
• Oral narratives
• Food studies
• Embodied knowledge

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Teaching Experience

As a GTA, Ilaria has been involved in the teaching of the following modules in the School for Cross-Faculty Studies:

• Economic Principles of Global Sustainable Development (GD104)
• Global Sustainable Development Project (GD107)
• Health and Sustainable Development (GD204/212)
• Security, Sovereignty, and Sustainability in the Global Food System (GD205) - guest lecture
• Consuming Cultures (IP205) - guest lecture

In addition, she has been involved in the marking of assessments for the following modules:

• Economic Principles of Global Sustainable Development (GD104)
• Health and Sustainable Development (GD204/212)
• Security, Sovereignty, and Sustainability in the Global Food System (GD205)
• Dissertation/Independent ¹û¶³´«Ã½ (GD307)

Ilaria also works as a GTA supporting undergraduate students in regular drop-in advice sessions through the Faculty of Arts' Writing LabLink opens in a new window. She carries out a similar role working as a PGR advisor for the SCFS ¹û¶³´«Ã½ Café.

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Conferences

'The Kitchen as Archive: Coffee, Memory and the Preservation of Everyday Heritage' - Sustain: From the Past, for the Future - Working across Art, Heritage and Sustainability (part of the 'Fixing Our Broken Planet' programme, Natural History Museum), Leamington Spa Art Gallery & Museum, November 2026 (presenter & organiser)

'Whose city? Whose resilience? An Interdisciplinary Conversation' - Disastrous Pasts and Sustainable Futures Conference, ¹û¶³´«Ã½, June 2026; co-facilitators: Dr. Orli Bass, Dr. Priti Mohandas, Katie Files, Virginia Thomas-Pickles (presenter)

‘Cooking Identity: A Gastrofeminist Oral History of Mothers’ Belonging and Identity in their Everyday Food Labour’ - Global Sustainable Development PhD Symposium, ¹û¶³´«Ã½, June 2026 (presenter)

‘Mothers’ Experiences of Identity and Belonging in their Everyday Food Labour’ - Association for the ¹û¶³´«Ã½ of Ethnicity and Nationalism Summer School 2026, University of Zadar, June 2026 (presenter)

'Power in the Kitchen: Rethinking Gendered Food Labour through Gastrofeminism' - International Conference on Gender Studies: "Gender and Power", London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, March 2026 (presenter)

'The Politics of the Everyday: Gastrofeminism and the Gendered Meanings of Food Work' - Graduate Seminar Series Session 1: (In)Formal Labour and the Role of Women's Bodies, Centre for the ¹û¶³´«Ã½ of Women and Gender, ¹û¶³´«Ã½, November 2025 (presenter)

‘Gastrofeminism in the Kitchen: The Role of (Grand)Mothers in the Evolution of Food Practices’ – International Conference on Food Studies: "Culinary Evolutions", London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research, August 2025 (presenter)

‘Cooking Identity: A Gastrofeminist Oral History of (Grand)Mothers, Belonging and Identity’ – Global Sustainable Development PhD Symposium, ¹û¶³´«Ã½, June 2025 (presenter)