After earning an M.A. in British culture and civilization from the University of Paris III (Sorbonne nouvelle) and another in Political economics from the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris, Patricia Reynaud studied at the University of Oregon where she obtained a Ph.D. in Romance Languages. She received tenure and promotion at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and taught there in the Dept. of French and Italian from 1988 to 2009. She has also taught in the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and in the summer at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Her publications include: Fiction et Faillite : Economie et métaphores dans Madame Bovary. She has also published articles in various journals including: Nouvelles Etudes Francophones, Sophia, Les Cahiers Simone Weil, African Literature Association, XIXth Century French Studies, Diacritics, French Literature Series and the Association of Indian Teachers of French. Her research interests include the French sociology of culture (Pierre Bourdieu, Luc Boltanski in particular), the influence of India on French philosophy and literature, French and francophone literature, film studies and the study of intercultural differences.