Laura Wright (academic)
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Laura Wright is a professor of English at
Western Carolina University Western Carolina University (WCU) is a public university in Cullowhee, North Carolina. It is part of the University of North Carolina system. The fifth oldest institution of the sixteen four-year universities in the UNC system, WCU was founded ...
. Wright proposed
vegan studies Vegan studies or vegan theory is the study of veganism, within the humanities and social sciences, as an identity and ideology, and the exploration of its depiction in literature, the arts, popular culture, and the media. In a narrower use of th ...
as a new academic field, and her book ''The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror'' (2015) served as the foundational text of the discipline. As of 2021 she had edited two collections of articles about vegan studies.


Education

Wright received a bachelor's in English from
Appalachian State University Appalachian State University (; Appalachian, App State, App, or ASU) is a public university in Boone, North Carolina. It was founded as a teachers college in 1899 by brothers B. B. and D. D. Dougherty and the latter's wife, Lillie Shull Dough ...
in 1992, an MA in English from
East Carolina University East Carolina University (ECU) is a public university, public research university in Greenville, North Carolina. It is the fourth largest university in North Carolina. Founded on March 8, 1907, as a Normal school, teacher training school, East ...
in 1995, and a PhD in Postcolonial Literature and World Literature from the
University of Massachusetts Amherst The University of Massachusetts Amherst (UMass Amherst, UMass) is a public research university in Amherst, Massachusetts and the sole public land-grant university in Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Founded in 1863 as an agricultural college, it ...
in 2004.


Academic interests

In addition to vegan studies, Wright's academic and research interests include
postcolonial literature Postcolonial literature is the literature by people from formerly colonized countries. It exists on all continents except Antarctica. Postcolonial literature often addresses the problems and consequences of the decolonization of a country, especia ...
and theory, South African literature,
ecocriticism Ecocriticism is the study of literature and ecology from an interdisciplinary point of view, where literature scholars analyze texts that illustrate environmental concerns and examine the various ways literature treats the subject of nature. It wa ...
,
animal studies Animal studies is a recently recognised field in which animals are studied in a variety of cross-disciplinary ways. Scholars who engage in animal studies may be formally trained in a number of diverse fields, including geography, art history, ant ...
, and
food studies Food studies is the critical examination of food and its contexts within science, art, history, society, and other fields. It is distinctive from other food-related areas of study such as nutrition, agriculture, gastronomy, and culinary arts in that ...
.


Impact

Wright's 2015 book ''The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror'' which proposed the academic field "
vegan studies Vegan studies or vegan theory is the study of veganism, within the humanities and social sciences, as an identity and ideology, and the exploration of its depiction in literature, the arts, popular culture, and the media. In a narrower use of th ...
," served as the foundational text for and introduced the discipline. She has since edited two collections of vegan studies articles, including ''Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism'' (2019) and ''The Routledge Handbook of Vegan Studies'' (2021). Reviewers and academics called the book a "foundational work" and "the foundational text for the nascent field" of vegan studies. In her foreword to the book,
Carol J. Adams Carol J. Adams (born 1951) is an American writer, feminist, and animal rights advocate. She is the author of several books, including '' The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory'' (1990) and ''The Pornography of Meat'' ...
says, "Thanks to this work, we now have a new category: the vegan studies-loving vegan." Cristina Hanganu-Bresch and Kristin Kondrlik, in their introduction to ''Veg(etari)an Arguments in Culture, History, and Practice: The V Word'', said Wright's proposal had framed vegan studies as a "critical lens to be applied to other cultural artifacts, and, indeed, to a whole new theory of culture."
Kathryn Dolan Kathryn is a feminine given name and comes from the Greek meaning for 'pure'. It is a variant of Katherine. It may refer to: In television and film: * Kathryn Beaumont (born 1938), English voice actress and school teacher best known for her Disn ...
said in the journal ''Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment'' that it "will clearly become an area of further study."
Jodey Castricano Jodey Castricano is a Canadian scholar of English and cultural studies who is a Professor at the University of British Columbia, Okanagan. They are known for their work in critical theory, critical animal studies, and gothic studies. Educati ...
and Rasmus R. Simonsen called it "the first vegan studies monograph to be published by a university press."
Dario Martinelli Dario Martinelli (born Andria, Italy, March 1, 1974) is an Italian semiotician, musicologist and composer. He is director of the International Semiotics Institute, professor at Kaunas University of Technology, and is also affiliated to the Univ ...
and Ausra Berkmaniene said, "The presence and legitimacy of 'vegan studies' within the academic world, especially since Wright cared to formalize the expression and define a paradigm, is something that should no longer require an explanation or a justification," and that she "coined the expression". Emelia Quinn and Benjamin Westwood called the book, "the first major academic monograph" on veganism and the humanities. Marianna Koljonnen in 2019 called Wright "the founder of vegan studies". Marzena Kubisz, also writing in 2019, called ''The Vegan Studies Project'' "the monograph which creates the foundations for vegan studies". Wright has given several talks to academic conferences about the introduction of vegan studies, including keynote addresses at ''Towards A Vegan Theory: An Interdisciplinary Humanities Conference'' at
Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
, ''Animal Politics: Justice, Power, and the State'' at , and a lecture, ''The Dangerous Vegan: The Politics of Scholarship, Identity and Consumption in the Anthropocene'', at Appalachian State. Appalachian State University offered a fall 2019 Honors Seminar, What is Vegan Studies? Exploring an Emerging Field, saying that with ''The Vegan Studies Project'''s publication "a powerful transdisciplinary field has emerged which is in turn influencing work across the disciplines" and Wright's works the field's "founding texts".


Awards and honors

* University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching (2018) * National Humanities Center Fellowship (2012) * Modern Language Association Florence Howe Award for Feminist Scholarship (2008)


Bibliography

* (2021) ed. ''The Routledge Handbook of Vegan Studies''. London: Routledge. *(2019) ed. ''Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism''. Reno: University of Nevada Press. * (2015) ''The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror''. Athens: University of Georgia Press. * (2014) with Jane Poyner and Elleke Boehmer, eds. ''Approaches to Teaching Coetzee's ''Disgrace'' and Other Works''. New York: The Modern Language Association of America. * (2013) with Elizabeth Heffelfinger. ''Visual Difference: Postcolonial Studies and Intercultural Cinema''. New York: Peter Lang. * (2010) ''Wilderness into Civilized Shapes: Reading the Postcolonial Environment''. Athens: University of Georgia Press. * (2006) ''Writing Out of All the Camps: J. M. Coetzee's Narratives of Displacement''. New York: Routledge.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wright, Laura 20th-century American women educators 21st-century American women educators Living people Year of birth missing (living people) American academics of English literature American veganism activists 21st-century American women writers 20th-century American women writers 20th-century American educators 21st-century American educators American women academics Appalachian State University alumni East Carolina University alumni University of Massachusetts Amherst alumni Western Carolina University faculty Ecofeminists Feminist studies scholars