Corey L Wrenn | University of Kent (original) (raw)

Videos by Corey L Wrenn

Ireland lays claim to a fascinating history of human interactions with other animals that is both... more Ireland lays claim to a fascinating history of human interactions with other animals that is both unique to the island and critical to larger international discourse. While it is true that Irish culture is historically tied to speciesism and its economy is especially dependent upon “meat” and dairy production, Ireland’s relationship with other animals is complex and sometimes forgiving. One of the first opponents of vivisection was, for instance, the 17th century’s Edmund O’Meara, not to be outdone by the world’s leader in Victorian-era anti-vivisection, Francis Power Cobbe, also Irish. In fact, many leading animal rights organizations were founded by Irish activists. The world’s first animal rights legislation passed in Ireland in the 17th century, while the first modern law that would ignite the animal rights movement in 1822 is credited to an MP from Galway. Some of the world’s first animal rights books were published by the Irish literary William Hamilton Drummond in the 1830s.

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Papers by Corey L Wrenn

The Routledge Companion to Gender and Animals, 2024

Foie gras (which translates to “fat liver” in French) consists of liver taken from force-fed and ... more Foie gras (which translates to “fat liver” in French) consists of liver taken from force-fed and force-fattened ducks and, to a lesser extent, gooses1 (gooses being more expensive and time intensive to exploit). While foie gras has been in production for hundreds, if not thousands, of years, its industrialization in the 1960s dramatically increased the number of animals impacted.2 Approximately 40 million individuals each year are currently used, abused, and killed for this specialty product, the majority of whom live and die in southwest France.3 Adams4 has argued that nonhuman animal agriculture is a deeply gendered industry, whereby nonhuman animals are routinely feminized in order to facilitate their objectification, butchering, and consumption. An analysis of foie gras production expands this observation by underscoring the gendered and institutional elements of nonhuman animal agriculture beyond biological sex, as the vast majority of foie gras victims are male. This twist further proves itself particularly relevant to understanding efforts to resist foie gras. As of this writing, foie gras production (and, in some cases, its importation and sale) is banned in many European countries, parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Argentina, India, and elsewhere. It remains one of the longest-pursued campaigns in the modern nonhuman animal rights movement. It also provides a revealing case study in the gender politics of anti-speciesism, notably the persistent inability of the movement to transgress sexist scripts in its effort to challenge speciesist cultural constructions. Foie gras comes from male ducks, yet nonhuman animal rights mobilization, specifically that associated with People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), maintains tactics that both villainize and victimize women. Using vegan feminist theory, this chapter critically analyzes PETA’s anti-foie gras campaigning (predominantly that which transpires in the United States, United Kingdom, and Europe) and its cultural implications for understanding both gender and species relations in the wider public and within activist spaces. Foie gras production aligns with gendered roles of male domination and female subservience, and anti-speciesism activists have attempted to accentuate this relationship using female activists as foie gras victims. However, they are also known to target women as perpetrators. Anti-foie gras campaigns, furthermore, tend to rely on sexist (and often violent) imagery and ideas about women. This is a tendency, I argue, that is deeply problematic in a society that is as patriarchal as it is human supremacist. Gender scripting in anti-speciesism campaigning must be carefully employed (if employed at all) to avoid intersectional failure when drawing comparisons between sexism and speciesism.

Journal of Appalachian Studies, 2023

Animalization is both a symbolic and structural process that renders some bodies cognitively, phy... more Animalization is both a symbolic and structural process that renders some bodies cognitively, physically, biologically, and even evolutionarily “Other” to the effect of normalizing and rationalizing unequal modes of production and structural violence. This article argues that Appalachians, like the peoples of other colonized regions, have historically been framed as less than human, ignorant, dangerous, undeveloped, and in need of civilizing. Relatedly, the introduction of institutionalized speciesism in the region (namely, the “fur” trade and animal agriculture) facilitated an in-group/out-group binary that would permeate colonial culture and establish an economic system built on the domination of others. In light of these intersections, this article invites sociologists to consider the Appalachian case study. Specifically, it considers how sociology may have contributed to the animalization of Appalachia and set into motion a legacy of cultural and political marginalization. To initiate this area of inquiry, critical animal studies theory is applied to three foundational sociological surveys of the region to briefly analyze and ascertain how researchers’ depictions may have shaped Appalachians as animalistic “Others.”

Gendering Green Criminology, 2023

Emotions: History, Culture, Society, 2023

Sociologists James Jasper and Jane Poulsen have argued that activists' deployment of emotionally ... more Sociologists James Jasper and Jane Poulsen have argued that activists' deployment of emotionally triggering 'moral shocks' can stimulate recruitment for movements, particularly for those which are less successful in recruiting through social networks. Others have suggested that, more than a recruitment tool, these moral shocks are useful for sustaining activist motivation. This study, however, explores the tendency of activists to disengage from moral shocks as a means of managing emotions such as compassion fatigue, burnout and psychological distress. Although many respondents see the utility in moral shocks as an outreach tool, they carefully consider their own exposure to protect their emotional well-being and protest sustainability. Results are based on an email-based qualitative interview with twenty-five newly recruited activists and established activists in the Western Nonhuman Animal rights movement.

Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought

Nonhuman Animals are the most vulnerable to environmental inequality, if only measured by the she... more Nonhuman Animals are the most vulnerable to environmental inequality, if only measured by the sheer number of individuals impacted. Climate change has decimated all variety of free-living species. The World Wildlife Fund for Nature's Living Planet Index reports that, since 1970, the world's nonhuman populations have, on average, declined by about 70 percent (Almond et al., 2020). But free-living communities comprise only a fraction of Nonhuman Animals impacted by human activity. Many of the critical consequences of climate change can be credited to or have been aggravated by Nonhuman Animal agriculture (Shukla et al., 2019), and this industry is also responsible for dramatically increasing the numbers of chickens, cows, pigs, sheeps, camels, rabbits, horses, and other animals classified as "livestock" who meet with terrible bodily and psychological injustices in the global production of "meat," eggs, breastmilk, skins, oils, feathers, and hair. The anthropocentrism of humanity's predominant relationship to the environment is so extreme that this gratuitous violence against other animals (both domesticated and free-living) goes largely unnoticed in everyday society. Meanwhile, environmental justice, the very field established to champion public awareness and policy in the service of marginalized groups, has also sidelined the nonhuman experience. And it does so in the face of some of the most astonishing injustices and large-scale suffering. This chapter will outline the potential reasons for this exclusion, while also providing a general introduction to Nonhuman Animal rights theory that would be of practical use to the uninitiated social justice scholar or environmentalist. Theories of social justice revolve around issues of human rights, public health, or environmental sustainability, with the effect of excluding Nonhuman Animals as irrelevant or secondary players in the dialogue. Their historical emphasis on class and race inequalities likely accounts for this exclusion as well. Some environmental ethicists do account for the Nonhuman Animal experience, of course, but often in a paternalistic manner that abstracts them in the greater fabric of "nature." Otherwise, charismatic megafauna are commonly singled out for protection, given their superficial appeal to human aesthetics. The view that Nonhuman Animals are valuable merely as resources is also prevalent. Here, Nonhuman Animals are objectified as cog-like components in the service of thriving ecosystems, as Kheel (2007) documents in her historical analysis of environmental ethics. This perspective is certainly antiquated and is increasingly challenged in the contemporary environmental ethics literature, but outside of academic and activist discourses it remains a dominant theme. The commodification of Nonhuman Animals and their reduction to use-value for humans, even in wild spaces, is thought to reflect patriarchal and capitalistic ideological norms. In a capitalist society, vegan feminists argue, all persons, things, and social relations are subject to reification as potentially profitable commodities (Nibert, 2002). Furthermore, in many cultures (particularly that of the West), this perspective is bolstered by a persistent legacy of conservative religious ideology that naturalizes human primacy.

Handbook of Inequality and the Environment, 2023

Research News, Apr 17, 2023

On Friday 15 November 2022, I participated in a debate on how to achieve a vegan world with my go... more On Friday 15 November 2022, I participated in a debate on how to achieve a vegan world with my good colleague and philosopher, Josh Milburn. Milburn makes the case that, in order to reduce animal suffering, some concessions should be made from the vegan abolitionist position. This includes the perpetuation of animal-based foodways that include oysters, insects, and other species with less understood degrees of sentience. Some domesticated species, for that matter, should be maintained
for human purposes, provided these animals are provided with a good quality of life. According to Milburn, perhaps it is not really necessary to liberate other animals in a vegan world. Sentience matters, but only for some species and only to an extent when determining the life outcomes for nonhuman animals.

Bloomsbury BFOL Lesson Plans, 2022

Routledge eBooks, Nov 30, 2022

In the 1970s, professionalization emerged as a new and cemented form of advocacy in the Western s... more In the 1970s, professionalization emerged as a new and cemented form of advocacy in the Western social movement arena which can be traced to the state’s encroachment on grassroots resistance. In this paper, the rising bloc of professionalized organizations is identified as powerful structural component in the nonhuman animal rights movement given its ability to cultivate a movement hegemony that protects and grows organizational wealth and elite interests. As they must compete for resources in a crowded social movement arena, this hegemony entails organizational cooperation that privileges a compromised approach and the marginalization of those considered too radical. To that effect, I highlight the prioritization of moderation across the movement and the focus on fundraising as important shifts in the animal rights movement. Indeed, this new neoliberal movement structure has great potential to disrupt democratic processes and stunt social movement innovation. There are a number of ...

Most Nonhuman Animal rights historians have heard tell of the mythical Oxford Group, a small grou... more Most Nonhuman Animal rights historians have heard tell of the mythical Oxford Group, a small group of Oxford philosophy graduate students, their partners, and a smattering of associated scholar-activists responsible for some of the first and most influential advances in modern anti-speciesist thought. Most Nonhuman Animal rights academics and activists, for that matter, are familiar with the work of Oxford star and movement “father” Peter Singer. Yet, despite this notoriousness, few are actually familiar with the inner workings of this group, nor the development of Singer’s work in context. What was it about Oxford that made this magic happen? What was it about the philosophical discipline at that time? What about the group dynamic itself? In The Oxford Group and the Emergence of Animal Rights, longtime Nonhuman Animal rights theorist Robert Garner and scholar-activist Yewande Okuleye bring substance to the hazy mythology surrounding the mid-20th century incarnation of Western Nonhu...

In the early middle ages, a community of Irish monks constructed a monastery outpost on the lonel... more In the early middle ages, a community of Irish monks constructed a monastery outpost on the lonely Skellig Michael just offshore of County Kerry. The island is small, rocky and dangerous. Monastery paths lead inhabitants and visitors along perilous cliffs and peaks. It was (and is) a geography better suited to birds than bipeds, and intentionally so as the site was chosen for its ability to humble. Its location in the Atlantic Ocean complicated monastery life even further, ensuring a stringent detachment from human society. Indeed, the location was intentionally chosen for its remote location on the farthest edge of known Christendom. These skelligs were the literal boundary land between the known and the unknown, spiritual and worldly, life and death, and human and nonhuman. Pilgrimages to the monastery allowed visitors to transverse these boundaries. Having abandoned human society and the luxuries of civilization, the monks’ lives were animal-like, brutish and short. This return to nature and relinquishment of human privileges was seen as the path to union with god. Today, the site has fully returned to Nonhuman Animals, and many seabirds now call the stone houses home. Indeed, this Christian outpost is now deemed an important bird area and is protected as a nature reserve. In this article, I discuss how the Skellig Michael experiment demonstrated a reversal in the medieval human’s desire to disassociate from their animality. These monks lived as animals among animals. As Western society transitioned from animist paganism to anthropocentric Christianity, the Skellig Michael outpost (which survived into the 1300s) offers a fascinating glimpse into the social construction of humanity and the permeability of such a project. Ireland typifies the blurring of human and nonhuman and bricolage of ideological practices old and new in the interim “dark ages” of Europe.

Ireland is a global leader in its economic dependence on “meat” and dairy production, a direct re... more Ireland is a global leader in its economic dependence on “meat” and dairy production, a direct result of four hundred years of British colonial practices. However, Ireland’s relationship with other animals from a wider historical perspective is complex and sometimes forgiving. This article illuminates the Irish vegan ethic, one that can be traced along its history of animism, agrarianism, ascendency, adaptation, and activism. From its pagan roots to its colonial-era vegetarianism, Ireland has been more receptive to Nonhuman Animal interests than is currently granted. Its contributions to the modern Nonhuman Animal rights movement and developments in green agriculture must also be taken into account. More than a land of “meat” and potatoes, Ireland exists as a relevant, if overlooked, participant in Western vegan thought. Increased vegan discourse has, however, met with resistance given the strong relationship between animal agriculture and the postcolonial Irish identity. Peaceful vegan activists have faced state repression, media censorship, and industry-led countermovement remonstration. This article examines the dynamic between Ireland’s vegan ethic and its uneasy dependence on speciesist postcolonial practices, including a content analysis of Irish media spaces to qualify the discourse. Findings support that, while veganism is often framed as a national threat, it has been conceded considerable media coverage and opportunity to resonate.

This article explores the sexual objectification of female-identified volunteers in social moveme... more This article explores the sexual objectification of female-identified volunteers in social movements as a form of tactical prostitution. It is argued that tactical prostitution constitutes a violation of the dignity of women in social movement spaces, while also posing a threat to the well-being of women and children in the larger public. This article investigates the Nonhuman Animal rights movement in particular, suggesting that tactical prostitution is particularly counterintuitive in this context as it asks the public to stop objectifying Nonhuman Animals with the same oppressive logic that it wields in objectifying female activists. This critique is placed within a systemic analysis of neoliberalism as it impacts social movements through the formation of a non-profit industrial complex. This system encourages the commodification of marginalized groups for institutional gain.

The cultural management of death and dying can illuminate social relations, and, although under e... more The cultural management of death and dying can illuminate social relations, and, although under examined, this includes the manufacture of ghosts and hauntings. Ghosts can represent the social recognition of a subject’s personhood as well as the legitimacy of that individual’s experience with inequality since many haunting narratives center a socially-experienced grievance. Although ghosts may not be objectively “real,” the persons they are said to represent and the oppression they endured most certainly are. Subsequently, an absence of haunting narratives could evidence a group’s structural disadvantage. Extremely marginalized groups may be so oppressed that they do not warrant acknowledgement. Nonhuman Animals, for instance, are much less likely to be recognized as ghosts, especially farmed species. To explore the relationship between oppression and symbolic interaction, this article examines nonhuman ghost stories through qualitative content analysis. Analysis expects to uncover a pattern of recognition that reflects the hierarchy of nonhuman worth in an anthropocentric society. Although farmed Nonhuman Animals exhibit the highest death rates in human society and their deaths are directly related to oppression (which heavily aligns with the popular explanation of hauntings as a response to a wrongful death), they are expected to constitute a statistically insignificant portion of ghost stories given their extreme marginalization. Cultural source theory, which argues that ghostly matters emerge from culture, is advanced with an application of David Nibert’s theory of capitalist-driven nonhuman oppression to suggest that those species that are most heavily commodified in the economic system will be culturally invisibilized in narratives of death and dying. The erasure of farmed Nonhuman Animals from popular ghost stories exemplifies the ideological maintenance and symbolic manipulation of human supremacy

Between the Species, 2015

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The Routledge Companion to Gender and Animals, 2024

Journal of Appalachian Studies, 2023

Gendering Green Criminology, 2023

Emotions: History, Culture, Society, 2023

Handbook of Whiteheadian Process Thought

Handbook of Inequality and the Environment, 2023

Research News, Apr 17, 2023

Bloomsbury BFOL Lesson Plans, 2022

Routledge eBooks, Nov 30, 2022

Between the Species, 2015

In a qualitative content analysis of The Vegan Society’s quarterly publication, The Vegan, spanni... more In a qualitative content analysis of The Vegan Society’s quarterly publication, The Vegan, spanning 73 years and nearly 300 issues, the trajectory of one of the world’s most radical and compassionate countercuisine collectives is presented and critically assessed. The Vegan Society’s history provides a case study on the ways in which social movements negotiate difference and conflict. Specifically, this paper highlights the challenges of identity, professionalization, and factionalism across the 20th and 21st centuries. This research also puts into perspective the cultural impact that veganism has had on Western society, namely the dramatic increase in vegan consumers, vegan products, and the normalcy of vegan nutrition.

International Association of Vegan Sociologists, 2023

-Veganism is predominantly presented positively, especially with regard to consumerism -Follows ... more -Veganism is predominantly presented positively, especially with regard to consumerism

-Follows preexisting momentum of veganism, not COVID

-COVID-19 acknowledged mostly in relation to the space created for new products or services

-Importance of veganism could have been emphasized but was not

-“Veganphobia” seems to have been cured, and the antidote was commodification in the marketplace

The animal rights movement is fundamentally based on love for other animals and a radical recogni... more The animal rights movement is fundamentally based on love for other animals and a radical recognition of human-nonhuman relationships as valid and important. In a world that has normalized wholescale violence against other animals, recognizing nonhuman animal personhood and expressing compassion for all kinds is a vital act of social justice. This talk examines social movement theories of liberation for other animals with specific reference to the gay rights movement as an adjacent project from which we might draw inspiration and wisdom.

Jasper and Poulsen (1995) have argued that activists’ deployment of “moral shocks” (usually in th... more Jasper and Poulsen (1995) have argued that activists’ deployment of “moral shocks” (usually in the form of graphic and violent media) can stimulate recruitment for movements, particularly for those which are less successful in recruiting through networks. Others have suggested that, more than a recruitment tool, these moral shocks are useful for sustaining activist motivation (Fernández, 2020; Hansson & Jacobsson, 2014). This study, however, finds that committed activists tend to disengage from moral shocks as a means of preventing compassion fatigue, burnout, and psychological distress. Although many respondents see the utility in moral shocks as an outreach tool, they carefully manage their own exposure to protect their protest sustainability. Results are based on an email-based qualitative interview with 25 newly recruited activists and established activists in the Western Nonhuman Animal rights movement. Results suggest the need for movements to recognize diversity of psychological experience in the ranks and develop measures for sustaining commitment that are sensitive to the needs of long-term activists.

After much ridicule and resistance, veganism seems to be reaching a tipping point in popularity, ... more After much ridicule and resistance, veganism seems to be reaching a tipping point in popularity, cultural assimilation, and institutional accommodation in the West. Indeed, the 2021 Veganuary event pulled a record 600,000 registrants, while hundreds of stores and restaurants eagerly provided new products and specials to facilitate the trend. A year prior, veganism was even recognized as a protected belief in the United Kingdom. Yet, with any successful political movement comes the predictable countermovement tasked with troubling mobilization efforts and preserving the status quo. For the vegan movement, its opposition takes many forms. This has included newly formed laws designed to protect the secrecy of animal agriculture (Martin 2015, Simon 2013), recharacterize vegan activists as terrorists (Wright 2015), redefine common food terminology and labeling to exclude plant-based options (such as “mayo,” “milk,” and “burger”) (Kleeman 2020), and cast doubt on vegan healthfulness with state-funded marketing campaigns (Nibert 2003). Opposition also materializes in the cultural realm with vegans routinely mocked, marginalized (Cole and Morgan 2011), and feminized (Adams 2000; Gambert and Linné 2018). It is veganism’s feminine association that has become its greatest point of vulnerability in a society that is, according to some feminist sociologists (Dines 2010), increasingly pornified, commodified, and antagonistic toward all things feminine. This begs the question: how can the popularity of veganism be reconciled within a patriarchal marketplace? I suggest that veganism is regularly described by advertisers in fetishistic terms, likely as a means to resonate with audiences that have been increasingly cued by pornographic and androcentric scripts of consumption. In this way, it is reduced to a hedonistic, capitalist-friendly practice of pleasurable consumption that is very much in line with existing unequal social relations. Drawing on vegan feminist theory, I argue that the veganism—a political position that fundamentally challenges narratives of domination—poses a threat to patriarchal social relations. Subsequently, veganism is depoliticized by patriarchal practices of sexual objectification and capitalistic practices of commodity fetishism. Sexualization, I conclude, transforms veganism from a mode of resistance into a mode of complicity.

The second wave of the animal rights movement began in the 1960s, riding the wave of youth counte... more The second wave of the animal rights movement began in the 1960s, riding the wave of youth counterculture and social justice protest and inspired by publications such as Ruth Harrison’s 1964 Animal Machines, Brigid Brophy’s 1965 “The Rights of Animals,” and Peter Singer’s 1975 Animal Liberation. By the 1980s, a robust movement had taken shape with the establishment of hundreds of grassroots and national organizations, strong transnational linkages, and a cultural adoption of basic animal rights ideology. The mid-1990s, however, would mark the beginning of a prolonged transition to a very new type of organizing. Across the West, professionalized advocacy became the norm, having been bolstered by the prevailing logic of growth and free-market mentality of neoliberalism. By the year 2000, the movement had fully entered a third wave of activism. This current wave is primarily characterized by the assimilation of mainstream activism into capitalist frameworks as evidenced by the rise of nonprofits and the emphasis on technological advancements and consumption. However, many of those occupying the margins of the movement have increasingly voiced their discontent with this approach. This factional division (along with the expansion of digital technology which has granted minority positions unprecedented platform) has manifested a protest profile that is distinct from earlier waves. This presentation attempts to document the movement as it has shifted in recent decades, offering a theory of change for future animal activism in the West. According to this analysis, it seems likely that the movement’s continued participation in the capitalist framework will be a major point of contention in the coming years.

Animals and Society Spring Workshop Series, 2021

In this presentation, I discuss strategies for successful networking and self-promotion as a mino... more In this presentation, I discuss strategies for successful networking and self-promotion as a minority scholar in the field of animal studies. This is a joint project with Animal Ethics from the Margins (operated by my colleague Dr. Cheryl Abbate of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas) and the Animals & Society Section of the American Sociological Association.

In this talk presented at the British Society of Criminology's Gendering Green Criminology virtua... more In this talk presented at the British Society of Criminology's Gendering Green Criminology virtual conference, I outline the history of the Western animal rights movement as one that has always been gendered. From the Victorian antivivisectionists to the Feminist for Animal Rights organization of the late 20th century, women have spearheaded the movement with an explicit recognition of shared oppressions between humans and other animals, even if they weren't always credited. New challenges are also outined, including sexual harassment within movement circles and pervasive misogynistic tactics.

This presentation examines the operations, difficulties, and demographic profile of American soci... more This presentation examines the operations, difficulties, and demographic profile of American sociologists affiliated with the animals and society section of the ASA.

Animal History Group, 2020

The sociology of work too frequently ignores Nonhuman Animals as producers, consumers, workers, c... more The sociology of work too frequently ignores Nonhuman Animals as producers, consumers, workers, coworkers, and commodities. Especially in the capitalist system, speciesism is fundamental to the economy. This presentation is a response to Tim Strangleman’s ‘Voices of Guinness’ (Oxford 2019) presented to the School of Social Policy, Sociology, and Social Research November 14, 2019.

Although ghosts offer a fascinating glimpse into social construction of meaning, very little soci... more Although ghosts offer a fascinating glimpse into social construction of meaning, very little sociological research has been conducted on this multicultural phenomenon. More usually, sociologically prefers to use “ghosts” metaphorically as those in the literary fields to describe social phenomenon or groups that exist in the margins with little conscious acknowledgement. Yet, ghosts are not just metaphorical. According to a recent Gallop Poll, about 1/3rd of Americans really believe in ghosts (similar statistics for Canada). Stories are passed down through oral tradition and recorded in books. These provide tangible data pools that can be qualitatively analyzed.

Appalachia as an economic region and cultural enclave has been well examined with regard to its c... more Appalachia as an economic region and cultural enclave has been well examined with regard to its class politics (Caudill 1963, Eller 2008, Fisher 1993), and, increasingly, scholars are attending to the salience of race (Inscoe 2020, Pudup et al. 1995, Scott 2009), gender (Barry 2012, Dunaway 2008, Moody 2014 [1973], Seitz 1995), and sexuality (Scott et al. 2022) to the persistence of hardship in America’s eastern mountains. Scholars of Appalachian studies and social movements are also beginning to acknowledge these intersections of class, race, and gender in the context of environmental injustice (Fisher and Smith 2012), a rather predictable combination given that environmental degradation has been foundational to the inequality in the mountains. What is apparently less obvious, however, is the relationship between marginalized humans and other animals who cohabitate the hills. A considerable gap remains in the academic understanding of Nonhuman Animals experiences across Appalachia’s troubled history and, more broadly, the construction of animality there.

The larger field of Appalachian studies would benefit from widening its parameters to include social constructions of species as well as the material conditions of other animals. The Appalachian Studies Association notes that the mission of the discipline is to “foster quality of life, democratic participation and appreciation of Appalachian experiences regionally, nationally and internationally” (2022). Historically, these aims have been intended for humans only. The importance of place and the centrality of environmental exploitation to the Appalachian experience has necessitated a disciplinary engagement with the natural world, and yet Nonhuman Animals remain predominantly invisible in both scholarly and activist spaces. This is problematic for a number of reasons. In terms of suffering and injustice, the violence inflicted on Nonhuman Animals in Appalachia is of critical moral importance. For the academic discipline and adjacent activist movement, anthropocentrism is institutionalized such that perhaps a more convincing case can be made for the entangled nature of human and nonhuman inequality in Appalachia. Appalachian peoples of all races and ethnic origins have been animalized for the purposes of rationalizing or even justifying their oppression. The rampant environmental degradation that persists in America’s eastern range, at least, has been identified as a major detriment to the health of the human population. It is this sort of intersectional consciousness that will need to be expanded to achieve the full expression of the theory. What might we glean from inquiries that take seriously the role of Nonhuman Animals in Appalachian life?

With the encouragement of its editor, I am compiling a proposal for an interdisciplinary special issue on Critical Animal Studies (CAS) in Appalachia for the Journal of Appalachian Studies. I welcome submissions that center Nonhuman Animal experiences, analyze intersectional relationships between humans and other animals, interrogate speciesism, or otherwise speak to the core principles of CAS in the context of Appalachian studies. Dr. Vasile Stănescu summarizes CAS and distinguishes it from other fields in the Animals & Society Institute’s Defining Human-Animal Studies series.

CAS recognizes that animality and animal oppression characteristically interlock with other social identities and systems of inequality. Submissions that also examine Indigenous, Latinx, Black and African, or other non-white groups in Appalachia are especially welcome. I also encourage submissions that center the experiences of women, trans folk, gender non-conforming persons, queer, disabled, and other marginalized groups that are often overlooked in Appalachian studies. Submissions that critically examine the experiences of Nonhuman Animals themselves (the most understudied group of all) will be granted priority as consistent with the special issue theme.

Suggested Topics

Animalization of Appalachian humans
Animal industries in Appalachia (ie. “fur” trade, “hunting,” “livestock” production)
Speciesist and/or anti-speciesist/vegan foodways in Appalachia
Appalachian animal lore and mythology
Appalachian religious traditions and animals
Animals used in Appalachian entertainment (ie. music, fairs, trade shows, “fishing,” “pet”-keeping)
Space and place for animals in Appalachia
Extinction, endangerment, reintroduction, and wildlife management politics in Appalachia
Animal rights protest or conservation in Appalachia
Animal welfare interventions in Appalachia
The role of animals or animal symbolism in Appalachian social justice efforts
Media analyses of representations of animals, humans, or wild spaces in Appalachia
Global, postcolonial, or diasporic analyses of Appalachian animality
Future-oriented or utopian analyses of Appalachian animality
In addition to full-length articles, this proposal will consider research notes, teaching notes, community notes, book reviews (fictional and non-fictional), and media reviews. Submissions are subject to peer review and are not guaranteed acceptance. As consistent with CAS publication standards, bias-free language is expected. Objectifying (i.e. “it”) or euphemistic language (i.e. “hunting”) should be avoided or flagged using italics or quotation marks. Author information for submissions to the Journal of Appalachian Studies can be found here.

The Journal of Appalachian Studies is published by the Appalachian Studies Association and the University of Illinois Press.

Please submit a title and abstract (or brief description of topic area) to myself (c.l.wrenn@kent.ac.uk) no later than April 16th, 2023.

Guest Editor
Dr Corey Lee Wrenn
c.l.wrenn@kent.ac.uk
Lecturer in Sociology, University of Kent
Co-Founder, International Association of Vegan Sociologists
Co-Director, Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements
www.coreyleewrenn.com

Works Cited

Appalachian Studies Association. 2022. Mission Statement. Retrieved January 19, 2022, from: http://appalachianstudies.org/about/.

Barry, Joyce. 2012. Standing our ground. Athens: Ohio University Press.

Caudill, Harry. 1963. Night comes to the Cumberlands. Boston: Little, Brown & Company.

Dunaway, Wilma. 2008. Women, work and family in the antebellum mountain South. Cambridge.

Eller, Ronald. 2008. Uneven ground. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

Fisher, Stephen, ed. 1993. Fighting back in Appalachia. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.

Fisher, Stephen and Barbara Smith. 2012. Transforming places. Chicago: University of Illinois Press.

Inscoe, John, ed. 2000. Appalachians and race. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky.

Moody, Skye. 2014 (1973). Hillbilly women. New York: Penguin Random House.

Pudup, Mary, Dwight Billings, and Altina Waller, eds. 1995. Appalachia in the making. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Scott, Rebecca. 2009. Appalachia and the construction of whiteness in the United States. Sociology Compass 3 (5): 803-810. doi: 10.1111/j.1751-9020.2009.00235.x.

Scott, R., J. Cory, and Z. McNeill. Eds. 2022. Speculative fabulations: Queering Appalachian futurisms. Journal of Appalachian studies 28 (1).

Seitz, Virginia. 1995. Women, development, and communities for empowerment in Appalachia. Albany: State University of New York Press.

Despite its legacy of feminist leadership and a continued female majority, the Nonhuman Animal ri... more Despite its legacy of feminist leadership and a continued female majority, the Nonhuman Animal rights movement has exhibited structural sexism across its various waves of protest. This institutionalized sexism not only inhibits women's ability to protest safely and effectively, but also permeates the activist imagination and aggravates interpersonal violence. Even Nonhuman Animals as a feminized group are unwittingly disparaged in popular campaigns. This essay suggests that structural sexism in the Nonhuman Animal rights movement is nourished by its patriarchal organization, specifically its decision to professionalize. Twenty-first century vegan feminist activism on the margins has been able to circumvent the hegemony of professionalized power and challenge taken-for-granted bureaucratic structures. Yet, despite indications that vegan feminist activists are influencing the movement dialogue, the movement's patriarchal norms have encouraged considerable pushback. Indeed, the patriarchal influence of professionalization has even created division between second wave and third wave vegan feminists.

While it would not be accurate to suggest that Ireland exists as a hub of veganism or vegetariani... more While it would not be accurate to suggest that Ireland exists as a hub of veganism or vegetarianism, too often it is written off as inherently unsympathetic to the ethics of plant-based eating and anti-speciesist politics. While it is true that Irish culture is historically tied to speciesism and its economy is especially dependent upon " meat " and dairy production, Ireland's relationship with other animals is complex and sometimes forgiving. This essay seeks to bring shape to the Irish vegan ethic, one that can be traced along its history of animism, agrarianism, ascendency, adaptation, and activism. From its pagan roots to its long history of vegetarianism, Ireland's history has been more receptive to Nonhuman Animal interests than might be currently understood. Its contributions to the modern Nonhuman Animal rights movement and developments in green agriculture must also be taken into account. More than a land of " meat " and potatoes, Ireland exists as a relevant, if overlooked, participant in Western vegan thought.

Applying critical sociological theory, this book explores the shortcomings of popular tactics in ... more Applying critical sociological theory, this book explores the shortcomings of popular tactics in animal liberation efforts. Building a case for a scientifically-grounded grassroots approach, it is argued that professionalized advocacy that works in the service of theistic, capitalist, patriarchal institutions will find difficulty achieving success.

Society & Animals, 2024

Juliana Adelman’s Civilised by Beasts presents a case study on urbanization in the modernizing We... more Juliana Adelman’s Civilised by Beasts presents a case study on urbanization in the modernizing West with an examination of human/nonhuman relations in the Irish city of Dublin. As Dublin contended with changing economies, a rising population, and numerous public health concerns in the 19th century, city planners and officials responded by increasing the control and compartmentalization of nonhuman animals. Dogs, pigs, horses, and cows or bulls are spotlighted as workers, commodities, and contagions who are gradually removed from urban spaces. Adelman initiates her investigation with an overview of early humane advocacy in Dublin, a history that is generally erased in more prominent narratives of the United States and United Kingdom. The lack of attention to Irish anti-speciesism is a curious one given that the first animal rights laws in the West can be credited to Irish politicians and activists (Wrenn, 2021). Adelman’s scrupulous attention to Irish policies, Dublin City records, and other historical documents is extremely useful in this regard.

Society & Animals Journal, 2024

With there being so many compromises necessary to mainstream veganism in a deeply speciesist soci... more With there being so many compromises necessary to mainstream veganism in a deeply speciesist society, how has the scholar-activist community negotiated its commitment social justice for Nonhuman Animals? Giraud’s Veganism: Politics, Practice and Theory examines these emerging conflicts at a historical point in which the cultural and political expansion of veganism allows for (and necessitates) philosophical reflection. Veganism is at a crossroads, and careful thought must be exercised to determine the most effective and inclusive strategies moving forward. How can veganism be promoted in such a way that highlights its accessibility while also remaining sensitive to pervasive food insecurity? How can veganism celebrate the diversity of traditional plant-based foods without appropriating or obscuring their cultural linkages? How can Nonhuman Animals be included in vegan advocacy without demeaning them or repelling the public with particularly violent imagery? What roles do social media, sanctuaries, and anthropocentrism play in advancing the interests of Nonhuman Animals? These conundrums, and many more, challenge the reader as they traverse the pages.

Networks, 2022

Your first choice is Animal Rights, Human Rights: Entanglements of Oppression and Liberation by D... more Your first choice is Animal Rights, Human
Rights: Entanglements of Oppression and
Liberation by David Nibert – why did you
choose that?
David Nibert is arguably the ‘father’ of
vegan sociology and this book has had the
greatest influence on my writing and
thinking. I had been introduced to David
Nibert and his work in graduate school in the
early 2000s, a time when “animals and
society” was just starting to be recognised
professionally by the ASA and the BSA. Until
then, I had not been aware that animals were
a legitimate area of study. Nibert was actually
a major player in organising the Animals and
Society section of the ASA in 2001, serving as
its first Chair. The publication of this book a
year later provided the theoretical
groundwork for the new sub-field.
Animal Rights, Human Rights argues that the
oppression of all species (humans included)
are deeply entangled. Of course, this
intersectionality argument is not new (the
influence of Patricia Hill Collins is evident in
this book), but the inclusion of species, at
least in the social sciences, was rather novel.
Nibert’s work also contributes to ecofeminist
theory (which has historically been more
animal-inclusive) by introducing sociology’s
critique of the state. The state, along with
elites and industries, he argues, have an
economic interest in exploiting marginalised
humans and other animals, as well as the
power to do so.
He traces this process of systemic
discrimination across human history, noting
how the development of sexism, classism and
other forms of oppression emerged with
speciesist economic modes of production.
For instance, sexism emerged with hunting,
given its male valorisation and gendered
division of labour, while classism may have
emerged with domestication, given its
contribution to surplus food and wealth.
Moreover, it is not just a co-emergence but a
co-mingling of oppression. The oppression of
humans is often intimately bound to that of
other animals, both physically and symbolically.
Disabled people, women, and people of
colour, for instance, are frequently objectified
and animalised (as are non-human animals),
which facilitates considerable systemic suffering.
While all animal-based economies, in the
Marxian sense, create a culture that
normalises species-based inequality,
capitalism has truly expanded this process.
Seventy billion land animals are killed for
food each year, a staggering number. For
Nibert, the path to a more just society will be
radical vegan socialism. So long as speciesism
remains unchecked, society will be
structurally and ideologically founded on
inequality, thereby sustaining human
oppression as well. It is a thought provoking
read that encourages the reader to see other
animals as communities worthy of sociological
inquiry and to revisit anthropocentric
interpretation of material history.

Oral History Journal, 2021

In The Oxford Group and the Emergence of Animal Rights, longtime Nonhuman Animal rights theorist ... more In The Oxford Group and the Emergence of Animal Rights, longtime Nonhuman Animal rights theorist Robert Garner and scholar-activist Yewande Okuleye bring substance to the hazy mythology surrounding the mid-20th century incarnation of Western Nonhuman Animal rights. Admirably, they do so before the knowledges and memories are lost to the ages, as the original members are well into their golden years with some having already passed.

Society and Animals, 2020

Although the nonhuman animal rights movement in the West is frequently framed by activists and re... more Although the nonhuman animal rights movement in the West is frequently framed by activists and remembered by historians as gender-neutral, Donaldson’s (2020) Women against Cruelty (which examines meeting notes and campaigning documents reaching back to the movement’s founding in the early 19th century) demonstrates just the opposite. Women’s affinity for anti-speciesist activism within the context of a prevailing sexism which pitted all female pursuits as lesser-than would prove a difficult hurdle to surmount with regard to social movement resonance. This is not to reify or reduce women’s contributions. Women against Cruelty catalogs a diversity of feminine and feminist approaches to advancing the interests of nonhuman animals: some religious, some scientific, and some intersectional. Many women favored educational outreach, while others relied on rational debate, shocking images, direct intervention, and legal resistance.

Society & Animals, 2020

Can we realize a liberatory world for humans and other animals without veganism as a baseline? In... more Can we realize a liberatory world for humans and other animals without veganism as a baseline? In her second monograph, Racism as Zoological Witchcraft, Aph Ko imagines we might. There is, sadly, a considerable lack of communication between anti-racism and anti-speciesism movements, and Ko posits that this disconnect reflects the limitations of theoretical frameworks. For one, veganism is frequently depoliticized into a dietary lifestyle, largely due to corporate interests and the (perhaps intentional) mischaracterization from nonvegans.

Society and Animals, 2018

Social Movement Studies, 2019

In a novel application of religious studies to the science of social movements, Sarah M. Pike emp... more In a novel application of religious studies to the science of social movements, Sarah M. Pike emphasizes the vital role that emotion and ritual play in the making of protest. For the Wild examines the construction of what she terms 'protest rites' and accomplishes this with an extensive qualitative case study of radical animal rights and environmental activism. For some years now, the social movement field has benefited from a wave of emotion research with theorists underscoring the importance of individual and group-level emotion in mobilizing and sustaining social movements. Pike's contribution to this dialogue is predicated on the ritual nature of emotional engagement in collective action. In a deconstruction of movement community-building efforts, affective protests, framing techniques, and the childhood histories of activists, she argues that activism takes on a spiritual quality. This is particularly so given the predominance of young people in radical movements. Radical activism offers a crucial rite of passage according to Pike's analysis. Imbued as it is with meaning, it shapes the very identity and life course of young activists. Although it is not a novel argument to suggest that movements are fueled by emotion, the 'consecration' of activism is more provocative. To bolster the claim, Pike retraces the histories of both environmentalism and anti-speciesism, arguing that they are rooted in the spiritual practices of indigenous populations, Transcendentalists, and religious revivalists. As a result, she observes: 'Trees and nonhuman animals, or even the Earth itself in a more abstract sense, are regarded by activists with awe and reverence' (p. 7). Thus, even though few of Pike's respondents actually identify as believers, she reinterprets their relationship to activism and nonhuman constituents as distinctly religious. Pike is correct to describe the animal rights and environmental movements as comprised of activists who take a more reverential attitude toward the natural world and nonhuman animals than is perhaps usual, but the evidence for this being literally religious or based in spiritual ideas is limited and thus needs greater explanation with regard to her thesis. In fact, little research has been conducted on the correlation between religiosity and animal activism (likely due to the movement's desire to avoid association with the heavily stigmatized atheist demographic), but what research does exist suggests that atheists (and, to a lesser extent, agnostics) constitute the movement's majority. Spirituality features only sporadically, far eclipsed by the movement's favored frames of animal suffering, freedom, fairness, and rational discourse. The less radical professionalized animal rights movement does engage religious frameworks (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals [PETA] and Compassion in World Farming [CIWF], for instance, sometimes produce leaflets, billboards, and blogs advancing anti-speciesism as a religious matter), but very little of this explicitly religious claim-making emerges in the radical flanks which Pike examines. These examples show that the characterization of animal rights activism as religious can be confusing, and it is not clear how far and how literally Pike wishes to push the relevance of religiosity to secular activism. SOCIAL MOVEMENT STUDIES

Society & Animals, 2019

I was first introduced to Aph and Syl Ko when they reached out to me in early 2013, just in the i... more I was first introduced to Aph and Syl Ko when they reached out to me in early 2013, just in the infancy of our blogging careers. It was an exciting time for digital activism, as feminist online publishing seemed to bridge the gap between the forgotten tomes of vegan feminist theory collecting dust in libraries and the vibrant, fast-paced conversations happening across social media. In July of that year, I launched Vegan Feminist Network (VFN) in heavy collaboration with Aph. It is a blog intended to bring voice to critical ideas about intersectionality and social justice within the nonhuman animal rights movement, ideas that had been stifled in prevailing theoretical dialogues and activist conversations. Aph and Syl contributed a number of essays to VFN, all of which were immensely popular. Their perspective was so fresh and thought provoking, it seemed real change was possible. Cracks were beginning to emerge in the white patriarchal hegemony that had reified American nonhuman animal rights efforts, and this included my own positionality. I was personally changed as an activist and a thinker in an immeasurable way through my early working relationship with them, and I know many other activists and scholars can report having experienced the same Ko effect.

Miller’s (2017) Building Nature’s Market introduces the American natural foods movement to social... more Miller’s (2017) Building Nature’s Market introduces the American natural foods movement to social movement studies, highlighting its challenge to the prevailing social order related to food, consumption, health, state authority, and individualism. This movement is concerned with more than just food; it tackles no less than society’s values about progress as it is generally tied to industrialization and technical innovation. The book’s primary thesis is the argument that the natural foods movement has been propelled not only by activist altruism and perseverance, but also through the innovativeness of savvy capitalist entrepreneurs and corporations. This argument is distinctive in social movement
studies, as many scholars identify corporate cooperation as “selling out” (Chasin, 2000) or capitalist co-optation (Wrenn, 2016; Zeisler, 2016). Despite the clear contradiction created by aligning with a corporate system that was simultaneously problematized, Miller identifies businesses as movement participants.

Although the burgeoning study of ‘animals and society’ has demonstrated that Nonhuman Animals1 ar... more Although the burgeoning study of ‘animals and society’ has demonstrated that Nonhuman Animals1 are heavily embedded in human societies, institutions, and systems, the sociological discipline has been overwhelmingly silent on these relationships (Nibert, 2003; Peggs, 2013; Wrenn, 2016). When other animals are mentioned, it is primarily as food stuffs, environmental contagions, or tributary characters in human development. They remain absent referents in this sense – objects but never subjects (Adams, 2015). The same can be said of critical media studies despite its fundamental interest in exposing hidden economies of media dissemination, interpretation, and influence. Human animals
may be the only species responsible for media construction, but they are certainly not the only to be depicted or impacted. Media has real-world consequences for Nonhuman Animals who are represented (or invisibilized) on screen or page, and, invariably, these consequences impact humans as well. For the literature to remain silent on these connections is a disservice to the discipline of scientific inquiry and critical thought.

Dr. Breeze Harper’s 2014 novel Scars: A Black Lesbian Experience in Rural White New England is a ... more Dr. Breeze Harper’s 2014 novel Scars: A Black Lesbian Experience in Rural White New England is a fictional addition to her larger body of work in food justice and Black feminism. Harper is best known for Sistah Vegan: Black Female Vegans Speak on Food, Identity, Health, and Society (Lantern, 2010) and is the leading activist-academic on pro-intersectionality praxis in the American vegan movement. Readers will be pleased to find her work offered for the first time in a short, jargon-free, nonacademic style. Both personal and relatable, Scars is a semi-autobiographical account of a young Black girl grappling with family trauma, sexuality, and structural oppression.

Although most animal rights activists identify as atheist or agnostic, the atheist/humanist commu... more Although most animal rights activists identify as atheist or agnostic, the atheist/humanist community has traditionally been unwilling to apply reasoned thought to speciesism and expand its circle of concern to other animals. This talk outlines some of the humanist/atheist traditions in the animal rights movement and highlights some of the core reasons why animal liberation and veganism align with a humanist approach.

Introduction to a new field of sociology A case for including other animals Suggestions for ve... more Introduction to a new field of sociology
A case for including other animals
Suggestions for veganizing your sociology

This presentation showcases animals and society in my lovely city of Canterbury. This is a studen... more This presentation showcases animals and society in my lovely city of Canterbury. This is a student-oriented presentation for the University of Kent Applicant Day. Animals have been central to the economy and growth of this medieval city, yet their legacy remains largely hidden.

The presentation would offer a history of human dominance and its relationship to our current foo... more The presentation would offer a history of human dominance and its relationship to our current food system. To that end, it would survey the historical development of various economies (egalitarian, hunter/gatherer, agricultural, and capitalist) and how they have collectively contributed to current food politics. This will include an analysis of the powerful role of the state and industry on production and consumption:

• Determining nutritional standards
• Artificially controlling price and availability of food products through
o Subsidies
o Advertising
o Manipulation of schools, doctors, and scholarly research
• Barriers to plant-based foods (food security, food deserts, etc.)

In short, this talk will encourage the audience to recognize how the food choices we make (and the choices available to us) are highly manufactured. While this talk will not be a promotion of veganism per se, it is designed to empower audience members to make informed food choices with awareness to their impact on other animals.