Research Bio

Henry Ravenhall is an assistant professor in the Department of French specializing in medieval French literature and manuscript culture. 

Some of his research interests include medieval Occitan literature; senses; theories of temporality; philology and text-editing; the philosophies of Jacques Rancière and Jean-Luc Nancy; and the environmental humanities. Currently, he is working on two book projects: The Anachronic Manuscript: Voices, Networks, and History in a Medieval French Book, which aims to develop a new approach to medieval literature and history-writing based on the manuscript as a material object, and Touch and the Experience of Medieval French Manuscripts, which documents the prevalence of haptic bookish practices in the French-speaking space between 1200 and 1500. 

Ravenhall studied at King’s College London, where he earned his B.A., M.A. and Ph.D. and finished his doctoral dissertation "The Anachronic Manuscript: Voices of the Past in BnF fr. 17177,” which is the inspiration behind one of his upcoming book projects. Before his current appointment at UC Berkeley, he served as a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge, working on a project titled “Tactile Communities: Emotion and the Experience of Medieval French Literature.”

Research Expertise and Interest

medieval French literature, Rare Books and Manuscripts, critical theory, French literature, medieval Occitan literature