**1. Development of Vegan Studies:**
– Emergence of human-animal studies and critical animal studies in response to animal exploitation
– Influence of key works like ‘Animal Liberation’ and ‘The Sexual Politics of Meat’
– Rejecting speciesism and advocating for total liberation in critical animal studies
– Veganism as a baseline for critical animal studies praxis
– Works like ‘The Heretic’s Feast’ and ‘The Bloodless Revolution’ shaping vegan studies
**2. Academic Recognition of Vegan Studies:**
– UN report recommending global shift to a vegan diet in 2010
– Increasing mainstream acceptance of veganism in the Western world around 2010
– Application of critical race and black feminist studies to vegan studies
– Laura Wright proposing vegan studies as a new academic field in 2015
– Academic discussions and workshops focusing on vegan theory and studies
**3. Characteristics and Scope of Vegan Studies:**
– Analyzing ethical, political, and cultural basis of veganism
– Relationship between vegan studies and critical animal studies in critiquing human domination
– Examination of vegan identity portrayal in media and popular culture
– Exploration of human-food-environment relationships in vegan studies
– Highlighting misrepresentations of veganism in the media and offering radical perspectives on discourse
**4. Ethical and Environmental Perspectives in Vegan Studies:**
– Ethical witnessing of animal suffering as a form of activism
– Influence of feminist and Marxist theories on animal studies
– Veganism challenging mainstream perspectives in animal studies
– Intersectional lens used in analyzing vegan identity in literature, arts, and film
– Critical role of veganism in addressing animal and ecological exploitation
**5. Academic Discourse and Critical Approaches in Vegan Studies:**
– Intersection of veganism with contemporary cultural theory
– Debates between Critical Animal Studies and mainstream animal studies
– Grounding of veganism in the inviolable rights of animals
– Reevaluation of humanist ethical frameworks in animal studies
– Importance of academic conferences and studies in advancing vegan theory and critical animal 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 the term, vegan studies seek to establish veganism as a "mode of thinking and writing" and a "means of critique".
Working within a variety of disciplines, scholars discuss issues such as the commodity status of animals, carnism, veganism and ecofeminism, veganism and race, and the effect of animal farming on climate change. Closely related to critical animal studies, vegan studies can be informed by critical race theory, environmental studies and ecocriticism, feminist theory, postcolonialism, posthumanism, and queer theory, incorporating a range of empirical and non-empirical research methodologies.
The field first began to enter the academy in the 2010s, and in 2015 was proposed as a formal field of study by Laura Wright.