Violetta Ravagnoli
Associate Professor of History
I am Associate Professor of History and I teach courses in Asian history, World history, and Migration and Food history. I am the coordinator of the Colleges of the Fenway Minor in Migration Studies and part of the committee of the new interdisciplinary Minor in Food Studies.
What do you love about Emmanuel College?
I love that I know each student by name and can follow their growth closely during their tenure at Emmanuel. It is a joy to see shy, but propositive freshmen turn into mature scholars, determined to find their place in the world and contribute to make it a better place.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell the reader?
I often work with students on research projects linked to my own topics. Emmanuel College is committed to offering students opportunities to get their hands dirty and be engaged with the craft of history. Students can collaborate with me during regular semesters or during the summers, receive a salary, and work with digital and physical archives. I also supervise students that intend to pursue their own research, all they have to do and come to student hours and discuss their ideas.
I also work on service projects with students in and outside of my classes. We work with local and national organizations that cater to immigrant and refugee populations. Everyone is welcome to join!
B.A. in Asian Studies (University of Rome, "La Sapienza"
M.S. in International Affairs (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Ph.D. in History (State University of New York at Buffalo)
HIST 1111 Traveling East: An Introduction to East Asian History
HIST 1101 Introduction to Migration Studies
HIST 1108 World History: from the origin to 1500
HIST 1109 World History: since 1500
HIST 2401 Modern China: Continuity and Change
HIST 2124 History Through Fiction
HIST 2126 A History of Japan Since 1600
HIST 2701 Historical Methods and Research
HIST 3412 Immigrant Kitchens: a Glocal Perspective on Identity, Ethnicity and Foodways
HIST 3404 East Asian Migration and Diaspora in Global Perspective
HIST 4000 Senior Seminar
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
1. The Building of Chinese Ethnicity in Rome: Networks Without Borders (Springer Palgrave, 2022).
2. "Visual Accounts of Complex Histories: The Pedagogical Value of Graphic Novels in Teaching Asian Migrations” on the International Institute for Asian Studies Newsletter (September 2022).
3. “Envisioning East Asian History: Graphic Novels in the Classroom” World History Association Bulletin (Fall 2022).
4. “Grace Chu: Chinese Cooking At The Crossroad of Ethnicization And Emplacement” in Gender and Food in Transnational East Asias: Toward a New Dialogue across Boundaries (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021).
5. “Strega Nona: The Spell On Identities” in Immigrant Generations, Media Representations, and Audiences edited by Omotayo Banjo (Springer Nature, 2021).
6. “Motherhood: Docendo Discimus” in Dreams for Our Children. Immigrant Letter to the Future by Banjo, O. ed. (Wise Ink: MN), 2022.
7. “Women in the Church: Local and Foreign, and Gender Relations. Japan” in The Palgrave Handbook of the Catholic Church in East Asia edited by Cindy Yik-yi Chu and Beatrice Leung, (Palgrave, 2021).
8. “Toward A Glocal Oral History of Chinese Migration to Rome” in Sagiyama, Ikuko and Valentina Pedone eds., Transcending Borders (Firenze: Firenze University Press, 2016)
Book Review: Afro-Sweden. Becoming Black in a Color-Blind Country by Thomas Ryan Skinner (2022) in the International Migration Review (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, June 2023).
Book Review: China in the World: Culture, Politics, and World Vision by Wang Ban (Duke University Press, 2022) https://www.iias.asia/the-review/china-world-culture-politics-and-world-vision.
SELECTED PRESENTATIONS:
1. “Catholic Women in Japan: Between Transnational Schools and Local Communities” Association for Asian Studies (AAS) Annual Conference, Boston, March 2023.
2. “Marvelous Mrs. Chu. Culinary Adaptation in Diasporic Life” World History Association (WHA) Annual Conference, Bilbao, Spain, June 2022.
3. “Eat Drink China America. Chinese cooking and cookbooks at the crossroad of ethnic identity and emplacement” scheduled to present at the Annual Conference of Asian Studies (AAS), Boston, MA March 2020. Conference was cancelled.
4. “Food, art, and festivities: ramifications of religious activities and representations of identity,” panel organized for the New England World History Association (NERWHA); “The orphans of Sicily in Boston: the transnational reach of religious feasts,” paper presented at the NERWHA Conference in Boston, March 2019.
Marion and Jasper Whiting Foundation Fellowship (2018)
Davis Grant (2017)
The focus of my research is Chinese migration. My first book was on the history of Chinese migrations to Rome, Italy (The Building of Chinese Ethnicity in Rome: Networks Without Borders (Springer Palgrave, 2022) and I am currently working on a new book project on the history of Chinese women movements and their relations with food. I am analyzing more than a dozen cookbooks written by Chinese women who traveled the world since the early 1900s. These women produced culinary literature and pursued food-related activities. They played significant roles in establishing themselves in America and elsewhere through the art of cooking, and by leading transnational lives that facilitated ethnic exchange and intercultural encounters.