Laura Wright - Profile of Vegan Studies Founder
We asked Dr. Laura Wright, Professor of English at Western Carolina University,
to reflect on her vegan journey. Here’s what she shared with us.
Early life and education
I grew up in Greensboro, North
Carolina. I went to a very small private school for several years, and during
that time, we took a field trip to a sausage plant. I was 13 at the time, and I
never ate another pork item again. I had always been incredibly concerned about
the lives of animals and where “meat” came from. I had a cat when I was a
child, but since then, I have had numerous relationships with animals – that I
have fostered, adopted, and cared for as a volunteer at various shelters.
Vegan transition
After I graduated from high school, I became a vegetarian. I have
written rather extensively about why and how I made that decision (in a chapter
in Defiant Daughters, read
here), but mostly I made the decision
because I never wanted to eat another animal, and it was hard to be vegetarian
as long as I lived at home with my parents. I moved to Massachusetts in 1999 to
pursue a doctoral degree in English. I studied South African literature and
wrote my dissertation on the work of South African novelist J.M. Coetzee’s
fiction and through studying his work, I became focused on the plight of
animals, as his work engages with the lives of animals in both South Africa and
the rest of the world. My dissertation also incorporated the work of Carol
Adams, whose The Sexual Politics of Meat was essential to both my
scholarship and my life. I became vegan in 2000 and have been vegan ever since.
Carol has also become a dear friend and source of support.
Guiding principles
My only reason for being vegan is because I simply cannot be a part
of the machinery of death and terror that is the meat, dairy, egg, and clothing
industries that render living beings into products for consumption. My
philosophy is ecofeminist, a knowledge of the interconnectedness of
environmental systems, nature, animals, and humans. I feel that there is no
justice for anyone or anything as long as there is oppression of others. And I
feel that being vegan is an act of feminist, anti-capitalist defiance, as the
choice to be vegan is a choice that is an affront to the overarching dietary, social,
and political expectations that shape American culture.
Modeling for non-vegans
I tend to exist as a vegan and let others see me doing that. I do
not proselytize about my veganism but rather try to live as an example. If I am
asked about my veganism, I am happy to explain why I am vegan, the ethics
behind my decision, and my understanding that not everyone can or should be
vegan. I have found that I have influenced numerous people in my life to become
vegetarian or vegan. As a college professor, I often teach texts that feature
animals and/or humans who make choices to become vegetarian or vegan (for
example, J.M. Coetzee’s Disgrace and The Lives of Animals, Han
Kang’s The Vegetarian, Yann Martel’s Life of Pi, Alice Walker’s
“Am I Blue?”), and these texts provoke great discussions about animals and the
choices we make with regard to their lives.
Importance of veganism
Obviously if everyone was able to make the choice to become vegan,
the impact on the climate would be significant and extremely positive. Further,
for those of us who are vegans for ethical reasons, empathy is an important
factor, and I feel that one thing that we need right now more than ever is
empathy. To care about animals, a person has to be able to accept the alterity
of the animal and also know that the animal is an autonomous being with
feelings and motivations that are valid and valuable. If one can empathize with
the plight of animals, then my assumption is that one can even more easily
empathize with the plight of other humans.
The practice of veganism
Veganism is a lived identity, so, yes, not a diet or lifestyle.
Being vegan impacts what kind of car I drive, what kind of clothes I buy (none
that contain wool or leather), what kind of texts, media, and materials that I
consume. Further, one thing that I try to emphasize when people ask me about my
veganism, is that I actually eat a much greater variety of food than I ever did
– and that I think most of people do – as an omnivore. I think that being vegan
makes one much more observant of and careful about so many things about the
world in which they live.
The place of social media
My choice came well before social media was ever really a thing. And after this most recent presidential election, I deleted both my Twitter and Facebook accounts, so I’m working very hard to remove social media from my life (which is hard given the world that we live in). I’m not really a “joiner” of groups, so I don’t tend to be part of online communities. I do recognize and applaud the role that social media has played and will continue to play in the lives of vegans who utilize it for the greater good.
Veganism and human rights
As I stated above, I am an ecofeminist, so for me, all rights – human and nonhuman – are related. I try to get people, particularly my students, to make those connections in relation to the literature that we read in my classes. One novel that does an amazing job of linking human, non-human animal, and environmental oppression is Amitav Ghosh’s Gun Island, which tells a story of the linkages between climate change generated human migration, human trafficking, and non-human animal species decimation (and it does so in the form of a compelling adventure narrative about a guy trying to solve a mystery). I’m not sure how my worldly outlook is focused at present. I think it’s perhaps more inward that it has been in decades, but that’s because I’m seeing in the world social and political shifts that I find terrifying and also unable to change. Asheville, where I live, experienced a natural disaster (in the form of Hurricane Helene) in September of 2024. In the wake of that event, I saw the human, non-human animal, and environmental toll that that storm caused. I am working to write about that experience and the interrelated loss of life and land that resulted. After the hurricane, my partner, Jason Sellers, who owns Plant Restaurant in Asheville, gave away vegan meals for weeks. I helped serve them. I realize that I’ve wandered from the question, but the experience of helping in this way gave me some hope. I would tell non-vegans to go visit an animal sanctuary and meet some animals. Animal Haven of Asheville has been a place where I have volunteered for years. I know the pigs, ducks, chickens, goats, and rabbits (as well as the cats and dogs) who live there. They are people with distinct personalities. I would tell people to go visit a skilled care facility like the one where my father lives (my mother died in December) and see the resident cats who roam the halls, comforting the residents. I would tell people to meet and know animals in any way that they can. And I would ask that they consider the lives of those animals.
Connections
Here’s a link to my Wikipedia
page. And here’s a link to my Academia.edu page,
which contains information about all of my publications, including The Vegan
Studies Project, in which I coined the term “vegan studies.” The only
social media account that I have that is still active is my IG account, and it exists
for the sole purpose of posting pictures of my art. It’s kind of fun.
