Researcher Network member, Caitlin Stobie, discusses her research for our Society & Culture Portfolio about how veganism involves ethical consumption of not only food, clothing and services, but also of cultural products.
I joined the Vegan Society’s Researcher Network shortly after completing my MA on vegan theory and literature. Considering the rise of ethical eating in modern society, my masters dissertation explored inclusive formulations of veganism in two contemporary texts and their socio-geographical contexts. In highlighting the similarities between novels by two women – South African author Zoë Wicomb and South Korean writer Han Kang – I interrogated how anti-speciesism can operate as both philosophy and praxis (that is to say, practical actions inspired by critical theory).
My dissertation was not the first to have drawn comparisons between two ‘southern’ states – in fact, South Korea’s former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae-jung has been referred to as the ‘Nelson Mandela of Asia’ for advancing democracy and human rights in East Asia and for reconciliation with North Korea. Where my analysis differs, however, is that I adopt a posthumanist approach by considering both human and nonhuman rights in these nations. Like the word ‘vegan’, ‘posthumanism’ is a fairly new term with myriad associations, even outside of the traditional scholarly realm; its Wikipedia page, for example, offers seven definitions. It is often confused with transhumanism, a movement which advocates the use of technology for human advancement – and, to create further confusion, not all those who identify as posthumanists are interested in the moral status of nonhuman animals. However, a particularly cogent philosophy is exemplified by Cary Wolfe’s What is Posthumanism? (2010), which gestures beyond liberal humanist frameworks that insist humankind is superior to – and distinct from – animals because of humans’ supposedly unique usage of language and logical reasoning.
In 2018 my analysis of interspecies ethics in Han Kang’s The Vegetarian was published in a special vegan studies issue of Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment (ISLE), the official journal of the Association for the Study of Literature and Environment (ASLE). I have also spoken about this article on the Knowing Animals podcast with Dr Siobhan O’Sullivan from the University of New South Wales. The other half of my dissertation, on Zoë Wicomb’s October, is forthcoming in an edited collection titled Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism (University of Nevada Press 2019). The collection is edited by Laura Wright and contains contributions from Carol J. Adams, Margarita Carretero-Gonzáles, Alex Lockwood, Alexa Weik von Mossner, and more. Dr Greta Gaard from University of Wisconsin, River Falls has written of Through a Vegan Studies Lens:
“In this penumbral period before climate change becomes unstoppable—when the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change announces we have until 2030 to avert the most catastrophic outcomes, and Paul Hawkens’ Drawdown ranks plant-based foods in the top four most potent strategies for slowing climate change—what is propelling our civilization toward its doom, if not the belief that humans can survive without other animals, other earthlings, and wild nature itself? With kindness and clarity--seamlessly braiding popular culture critiques with feminist animal studies, postcolonial and anti-racist studies, and vegan ecofeminisms—these Vegan Studies scholars hold up a mirror to industrial culture’s self-image: the faces we present to the world, the stories we tell ourselves. Listen, they say: we don’t have to be cannibals, devouring our world, our future, ourselves. But we have to choose, and soon.”
With the recent and shocking announcement from the WWF that global wildlife populations have fallen by 60%, it is clear that now is the time for both vegan theory and praxis. It is my hope that collections such as this will inspire interdisciplinary collaborations between members of the Vegan Society and motivate sustainable changes in the broader academic community. Ecocritical vegans’ research suggests there is potential to create innovative and environmentally friendly narratives, both in scholarly and creative literature. This can impact work done by The Vegan Society and its Researcher Network by showing how veganism involves ethical consumption of not only food, clothing and services, but also of cultural products.
Since starting my PhD at the University of Leeds in 2016 I have co-founded the Leeds Animal Studies Network (LASN), and I encourage anyone living near in or near Leeds to attend the network’s new seminars and events. I look forward to continuing my work in critical animal studies by co-organising a conference on the animal turn in modernist studies titled Beastly Modernisms at the University of Glasgow in September 2019.
The views expressed by our Research News contributors are not necessarily the views of The Vegan Society.
You can read more about Caitlin's research on her Researcher Network page here.
The views expressed by our Research News contributors are not necessarily the views of The Vegan Society.
