Ilaria Ravazzolo

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, 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 also from the University of Warwick and has experience mentoring and supporting undergraduate students, both in the department and in the wider university. Her research interests lie at the intersection of gender, food, and identity, with a particular interest in the sense of belonging among Italians in Switzerland. Ilaria is passionate about valuing women's voices, embodied knowledge and everyday histories, both within academia and for a wider audience. She is putting this into practice in her research, teaching and student support work as well as in her role as editor for Women's History TodayLink opens in a new window, the journal of the Women's History Network.

Being Swiss-Italian, Ilaria brings a personal connection to her research, combining her heritage with her academic expertise. Her work draws on interdisciplinary approaches to examine identity and belonging and challenge popular stereotypes and essentialist narratives. She is particularly interested in how everyday food labour - such as food preparation and sharing meals - intersects with gender and social norms. Through her teaching and research, Ilaria is committed to creating inclusive, engaging learning environments and fostering a deeper understanding of the social and cultural dimensions of sustainability.

Research Overview

Ilaria's research offers a critical engagement with the UN's Agenda 2030, particularly with Sustainable Development Goal 5 and its Target 5.4, which calls for the recognition and valuation of unpaid care and domestic labour. While Target 5.4 emphasises measurement and redistribution, it largely frames care as an economic variable, overlooking its lived, embodied and relational dimensions. However, this study challenges such technocratic approaches by foregrounding everyday food labour as a crucial yet persistently undervalued form of unpaid care labour.

Developing and expanding the emerging framework of gastrofeminism, this research examines the structural invisibilisation of domestic food labour through a case study of Italian mothers and grandmothers in Switzerland. Cooking, feeding and sustaining families are practices essential to social reproduction, yet they are frequently naturalised as expressions of love, tradition or femininity rather than being recognised as skilled and sustaining labour. By conceptualising culinary practices as care labour, Ilaria's research contributes to feminist debates on the economic and epistemic marginalisation of domestic labour and repositions everyday food labour as politically significant.

The diasporic context intensifies these dynamics since (grand)mothers are often positioned as custodians of cultural continuity, with food serving as a primary medium through which national identity is performed and authenticated. These expectations are reinforced by persistent cultural stereotypes of the Italian mamma and nonna, as well as by the global recognition of Italian cuisine, for instance through its inscription on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage lists. Hence why this study interrogates how such narratives shape and constrain (grand)mothers' everyday lives, examining how culinary practices are adapted, negotiated and transformed.

Methodologically grounded in oral history interviews, Ilaria's research treats storytelling as both research method and epistemological intervention. Public representations of Italian (grand)mothers are frequently mediated through film, television and nationalist discourse; this research instead creates spaces for participants to narrate their own experiences of migration, labour, identity and belonging. The study pays particular attention to the sensory and affective dimensions of food memories, recognising embodied knowledge as a legitimate and vital form of expertise. By centring lived experience, Ilaria's research challenges hierarchical distinctions between academic knowledge and everyday practice, advocating for more inclusive frameworks within gender studies, food studies and sustainable development.

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Academic Background

PhD Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick (2024 - present)

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

MASc Global Sustainable Development, University of Warwick (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, University of Warwick (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

• Gendered divisions of unpaid labour
• Everyday belonging
• Women's narratives
• Oral history
• Food and identity
• Embodied knowledge and lived experience

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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)
• Dissertation/Independent Study (GD307)
• Health and Sustainable Development (GD204/212)

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.

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Conference Papers

'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

'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 Study of Women and Gender, University of Warwick, November 2025

‘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

‘Cooking Identity: A Gastrofeminist Oral History of (Grand)Mothers, Belonging and Identity’ – Global Sustainable Development PhD Symposium, University of Warwick, June 2025