🍃 Plant Power 🐘
Howdy folks,
Me again with some news! Several of you emailed me about my students' successful campaign in December to transition the University of Kent to plant-based catering. I thought you might appreciate an update. We are now a fourth of the way through 2023, and, unfortunately, the university is still dragging on upholding the vote. Our student leaders were asked to meet with the student union board of trustees in late February to defend the proposal in person. Mishka and I joined the students on a march across campus to raise awareness about the win and put pressure on the university to uphold its democratic channels.
Although the University of Kent purports itself to be at the forefront of sustainability and food justice, its hesitancy to honor the student body's vote for a plant-based university suggests to me that "sustainability" is being exploited as a hollow buzzword. With the historic vote of 467 in favor (no other student union campaign has garnered even half that number of votes), the university is obliged to honor the policy change. While the university continues to deliberate, other universities, such as the University of Sterling and Cambridge University have also seen successful votes and have begun the transition.
Will the University of Kent take its commitment to fighting social injustice and climate change seriously and begin the transition that the students have voted for? Hopefully, I will have a positive update on this in my next newsletter!
In the meantime, this newsletter includes two interviews with Always for Animal Rights and New Books Network. The New Books interview is about my latest book, Animals in Irish Society. This was one of my favorite talks, as Kyle really dove into some tricky theoretical and methodological topics. Definitely give it a listen.
Hot off the press, I have a chapter on vegan feminism in Feminist Animal Studies, edited by fellow vegan sociologist Erika Cudworth and colleagues. Otherwise, I keep plugging along on my forthcoming books, Vegan Sociology and Vegan Feminism.
In the meantime, check out a variety of new blog posts I've published this year on topics including humane-washing, anthropocentric social science, and the depoliticization of veganism.
Thank you for supporting my work,
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Interview with Sociologist Corey Lee Wrenn about Vegan Feminism, Sexism in the Animal Movement, and the Intersections of Social Justice Issues
Always for Animal Rights
January 24, 2023
In this interview, I speak about how I started making connections between veganism and feminism in my work, and we discuss why it’s harmful and ineffective to use sexist tactics in animal advocacy campaigns. I describe the history of the vegan feminist group, Feminists for Animal Rights and offer reading recommendations for those who wish to learn more about vegan feminism and the interconnectedness of speciesism with other forms of oppression in society.
Listen here>>
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Animals in Irish Society
New Books Network
January 28, 2023
In this interview with Kyle Johannsen, we discuss my book Animals in Irish Society. Kyle and I chat about the complicated history of colonization in Ireland and how this informs animal rights history and vegan activism today.
Listen here>>
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Building a Vegan Feminist Network
My chapter on building a vegan feminist network in the professionalized digital age of Third Wave animal activism has been published in Feminist Animal Studies: Theories, Practices, Politics (Routledge 2022). In this chapter, I note that the millennium brought with it new challenges in online activism, professionalized organization, and collective solidarity.
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Why Vegans Don't Wear "Leather"
Until we are comfortable wearing shoes and belts from preserved human skin, we are still practicing speciesism in suggesting that some bodies are less worth our respect and that some bodies ultimately remain fair game for commodification. Vegans don’t wear “leather.”
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Society Writings: Veganism Made Real in Print
Although literary productions in vegetarian and vegan societies today primarily serve capitalist interests, the legacy of print activism should be celebrated. The prior impact of magazines, journals, and newsletters demonstrates the power that can be wielded by just a few committed activists. By pen or typewriter, early vegans created, shaped, and nourished a movement. Professionalization may have undermined that power in official channels, but grassroots activists carry on the tradition in an ever-expanding repertoire of digital media.
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Eating Vegan vs. Being Vegan: The Vegan Society and Depoliticized Capitalist Campaigning
Veganism is a threatening concept for those monied institutions which benefit from exploitation and support the third sector. Unfortunately, the third sector has complied with this in order to sustain funding channels. “You don’t have to be vegan” is a means of depoliticizing veganism while also positioning it as congruent with consumerism favorable to capitalism.
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The Only Vegan in the Department: Science, Anti-Veganism, and the Illusion of Objectivity
Critical thinking can be used to liberate, but the pretense of critical thinking has also been used to shut down liberatory discourses, dismiss the claims of marginalized groups, and maintain an unequal status quo. Weber reminds us that reality is more than the material–it is also found in shared subjective meanings. Objectivity, knowledge, facts, and truth are subsequently vulnerable to political maneuvering. If no science is value-free, what values will we apply? Values of violence or values of justice?
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Third-Wave Vegan Feminism and Feminist Animal Studies
In my chapter for Feminist Animal Studies (Routledge 2022) edited by Erika Cudworth, Ruth E. McKie and Di Turgoose, I argue that vegan feminist activism has entered a millennial third wave. This wave, I argue, is distinguished by three key developments: the professionalization of the movement space, the democratization effect of internet technology, and the subsequent influx of ideas and influence from marginalized groups.
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The Fetishization of “Animal-Friendly” Animal Products
The Body Shop, like LUSH, markets itself as a compassionate company while simultaneously profiting from the institutionalized exploitation and killing of Nonhuman Animals. Declaring to customers that non-vegan animal-based products “don’t harm the animals” is false advertising of the worst kind. As is the case with most capitalist enterprises that profit from the oppressed, The Body Shop banks on customers never questioning or thinking critically about their ethical claimsmaking. This false consciousness is buttressed by “cruelty-free” labeling and endorsement from large “animal rights” non-profits such as PETA. These charities have effectively socialized many customers that is okay to use, harm, and kill other animals as long as it is done “nicely.”
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Animals in Irish Society
New Review in the European Journal of Food, Drink and Society
Esteemed Irish food historian and television host Máirtín Mac Con Iomaire has offered an insightful review of my latest book, Animals in Irish Society.
Máirtín observes:
This is a fascinating book, which challenges the status quo with its Marxist vegan feminist framing. It is extremely well researched and broad in its scope. The alliteration of “animism, agrarianism, ascendency, adaptation, and activism” promised by the publisher is delivered. It is full of interesting nuggets and facts, but also of challenging political ideology. I loved the description of vegans as “the butter witches of the modern day, an untrusted feminine force interfering with the livelihood of ‘farmers’” (p. 189).
Paperbacks are now available.
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Piecemeal Protest
Animal Rights in the Age of Nonprofits
Piecemeal Protest is available through Amazon and the University of Michigan Press. You can read a synopsis of my new book plus behind-the-scenes author commentary on my blog.
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