Yale Bulletin and Calendar

September 17, 2004|Volume 33, Number 3

Shilpa Raval, specialist on gender
and sexuality in the ancient world

IShilpa Raval, assistant professor of classics and women's and gender studies, died May 23 of cancer at the age of 34.

Ms. Raval, who taught classes in Latin language and literature, and in classic civilization, had a particular interest in the issues of gender and sexuality in the ancient world. Her publications spanned Latin language and literature, gender and identity, and she was noted on campus for her combined expertise in modern critical theory and ancient literature.

Ms. Raval's interest in issues of gender extended beyond the academic realm. In 2002-2003, she directed the Women Faculty Forum at Yale, for which she organized a series of workshops, colloquia and lectures, and was concerned about how practical issues such as childcare can affect academic affairs. In a newspaper interview, she commented that one of the biggest obstacles to the careers of young women faculty is the lack of childcare, noting that "the tenure clock and the biological clock are within the same time frame."

Born in Ahmedabad in Gujarat, India, Shilpa Raval came to the United States at the age of two with her parents, who settled in Jersey City, New Jersey. She attended the Academy of St. Aloysius in New Jersey and then Drew University, where she majored in classics and English, graduating summa cum laude in 1991. She earned a Ph.D. in 1998 from Brown University, where she wrote her dissertation on gender, language and sexuality in Ovid's "Metamorphoses."

After graduate school, Ms. Raval taught at the University of Missouri at Columbia for two years before coming to Yale.

Ms. Raval celebrated her Gujarati heritage and was proficient in her family's native language. At a memorial service held for her in New Haven in May, she was also remembered for her Indian vegetarian cuisine, her hospitality and what one friend described as her "million-watt smile."

Ms. Raval is survived by her husband, Ted Bromund, associate director of International Security Studies at Yale, whom she married in a traditional Hindu ceremony in 2000.

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IN MEMORIAM