Laura Wright (literary scholar)

Wright received a bachelor's in English from Appalachian State University in 1992,{{cite web|last=|first=|date=21 March 2016|title=Author of 'The Vegan Studies Project' returns to alma mater|url=https://www.wataugademocrat.com/author-of-the-vegan-studies-project-returns-to-alma-matter/article_05a959f3-c254-5dc1-8357-404f30028b8e.html|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200319220620/https://www.wataugademocrat.com/author-of-the-vegan-studies-project-returns-to-alma-matter/article_05a959f3-c254-5dc1-8357-404f30028b8e.html|archive-date=19 March 2020|access-date=20 December 2018|website=|publisher=Wautaga Democrat}} an MA in English from East Carolina University in 1995,{{cite web |title=Laura Wright |url=https://wcu.academia.edu/lwrightemailwcueduWright/CurriculumVitae |publisher=Western Carolina University |access-date=20 December 2018 |archive-date=19 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200319220612/https://wcu.academia.edu/lwrightemailwcueduWright/CurriculumVitae |url-status=live }} and a PhD in Postcolonial Literature and World Literature from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2004.{{cite web |title=Laura Wright |url=https://www.wcu.edu/learn/departments-schools-colleges/cas/humanities/english/english-faculty/laura-wright.aspx |publisher=Western Carolina University |access-date=20 December 2018 |archive-date=29 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229031319/https://www.wcu.edu/learn/departments-schools-colleges/cas/humanities/english/english-faculty/laura-wright.aspx |url-status=live }}

In addition to vegan studies, Wright's academic and research interests include postcolonial literature and theory, South African literature, ecocriticism, animal studies, and food studies.{{Cite book|title=Bad environmentalism: irony and irreverence in the ecological age|last=Nicole|first=Seymour|isbn=9781452958095|location=Minneapolis|pages=121|oclc=1039215612|date = 2018-10-30}}

Wright's 2015 book The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror{{Cite book|title=The Vegan Studies Project: food, animals, and gender in the age of terror|last=Wright|first=Laura|date=2015|publisher=University of Georgia Press|isbn=9780820348544|location=Athens|oclc=920013340}} which proposed the academic field "vegan studies," served as the foundational text for and introduced the discipline.{{Cite web|url=https://www.ecolitbooks.com/2019/08/the-emergence-of-vegan-studies-q-a-with-laura-wright-author-of-through-a-vegan-studies-lens/|title=The Emergence of Vegan Studies|last=Yunker|first=John|date=August 25, 2019|language=en-US|access-date=August 28, 2019|archive-date=August 28, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190828200226/https://www.ecolitbooks.com/2019/08/the-emergence-of-vegan-studies-q-a-with-laura-wright-author-of-through-a-vegan-studies-lens/|url-status=live}} 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"{{cite web |last1=Quinn |first1=Emilia |last2=Westwood |first2=Ben |title=RUNNING AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONFERENCE: 'TOWARDS A VEGAN THEORY' |url=https://torch.ox.ac.uk/running-interdisciplinary-conference-%E2%80%98towards-vegan-theory%E2%80%99 |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=20 December 2018 |archive-date=31 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181231050852/https://torch.ox.ac.uk/running-interdisciplinary-conference-%E2%80%98towards-vegan-theory%E2%80%99 |url-status=dead }} and "the foundational text for the nascent field" of vegan studies.{{cite web |last1=Brenton |first1=Keith |title=WCU faculty member's book looks at perceptions of veganism |url=https://news-prod.wcu.edu/2015/09/wcus-laura-wright-authors-the-vegan-studies-project/ |publisher=Western Carolina University |access-date=20 December 2018 |date=2015-09-23 |archive-date=2018-12-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220231844/https://news-prod.wcu.edu/2015/09/wcus-laura-wright-authors-the-vegan-studies-project/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |title=The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror |url=http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/index/the_vegan_studies_project |publisher=University of Georgia Press |access-date=20 December 2018 |archive-date=29 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181229031354/http://www.ugapress.org/index.php/books/index/the_vegan_studies_project |url-status=live }} In her foreword to the book, Carol J. Adams says, "Thanks to this work, we now have a new category: the vegan studies-loving vegan."Adams, Carol J. "Foreword", in {{harvp|Wright|2015|p=xvii}}. 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."{{Cite book|last1=Hanganu-Bresch|first1=Cristina|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wZAOEAAAQBAJ&q=laura+wright|title=Veg(etari)an Arguments in Culture, History, and Practice: The V Word|last2=Kondrlik|first2=Kristin|publisher=Springer Nature|year=2020|isbn=978-3-030-53280-2|pages=XX|language=en}} Kathryn Dolan said in the journal Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment that it "will clearly become an area of further study."{{cite journal |last1=Dolan |first1=Kathryn |title=The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror. By Laura Wright. |journal=Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment |date=November 2016 |volume=23 |issue=3 |page=644 |doi=10.1093/isle/isw059 }} Jodey Castricano and Rasmus R. Simonsen called it "the first vegan studies monograph to be published by a university press."{{cite book|title=Critical Perspectives on Veganism|last1=Castricano|first1=Jodey|last2=Simonsen|first2=Rasmus R.|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan|year=2016|isbn=978-3-319-33418-9|editor1-last=Castricano|editor1-first=Jodey|location=Basingstoke, United Kingdom|pages=v–xv|chapter=Introduction: Food for Thought|editor2-last=Simonsen|editor2-first=Rasmus R.}}

Dario Martinelli 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".{{cite journal |last1=Martinelli |first1=Dario |last2=Berkmaniene |first2=Ausra |title=The Politics and the Demographics of Veganism: Notes for a Critical Analysis |journal=International Journal for the Semiotics of Law |date=February 12, 2018 |volume=31 |issue=3 |pages=501–530 |doi=10.1007/s11196-018-9543-3 |s2cid=149235953 }} Emelia Quinn and Benjamin Westwood called the book, "the first major academic monograph" on veganism and the humanities.{{cite book |last1=Quinn |first1=Emelia |last2=Westwood |first2=Benjamin |title=Thinking Veganism in Literature and Culture: Towards a Vegan Theory |date=2018 |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |isbn=9783319733791 }}

Marianna Koljonnen in 2019 called Wright "the founder of vegan studies".{{Cite journal|last=Koljonen|first=Marianna|date=August 19, 2019|title=Thinking and Caring Boys Go Vegan: Two European Books That Introduce Vegan Identity to Children|url=https://muse.jhu.edu/article/731339|journal=Bookbird: A Journal of International Children's Literature|language=en|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|volume=57|issue=3|pages=13–22|doi=10.1353/bkb.2019.0052|s2cid=202254232|issn=1918-6983}} Marzena Kubisz, also writing in 2019, called The Vegan Studies Project "the monograph which creates the foundations for vegan studies".{{Cite journal|last=Kubisz|first=Marzena|date=January 2019|title=Veganisation of the Academy and the New Humanities: Veganism in the Context of Literary and Cultural Studies|url=https://www.academia.edu/40272444|journal=Er(r)go Teoria–Literatura–Kultura|language=pl|access-date=2019-09-13|archive-date=2021-01-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119182148/https://www.academia.edu/40272444/Weganizm_a_reduktarianizm_Er_r_go_Teoria_Literatura_Kultura_Nr_38_1_2019_|url-status=live}}

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,{{cite web |title=Towards a Vegan Theory |url=https://torch.ox.ac.uk/towards-vegan-theory |publisher=University of Oxford |access-date=20 December 2018 |archive-date=20 December 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181220231257/https://torch.ox.ac.uk/towards-vegan-theory |url-status=live }} Animal Politics: Justice, Power, and the State at {{Interlanguage link|Internationale School voor Wijsbegeerte|lt=|nl||WD=}}, and a lecture, The Dangerous Vegan: The Politics of Scholarship, Identity and Consumption in the Anthropocene, at Appalachian State.{{Cite web|date=2019-10-04|title="The Dangerous Vegan: The Politics of Scholarship, Identity and Consumption in the Anthropocene" with alumna Dr. Laura Wright|url=https://cas.appstate.edu/news/%E2%80%9C-dangerous-vegan-politics-scholarship-identity-and-consumption-anthropocene%E2%80%9D-alumna-dr-laura|access-date=2020-07-20|website=“The Dangerous Vegan: The Politics of Scholarship, Identity and Consumption in the Anthropocene” with alumna Dr. Laura Wright|language=en|archive-date=2020-07-20|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200720160820/https://cas.appstate.edu/news/%E2%80%9C-dangerous-vegan-politics-scholarship-identity-and-consumption-anthropocene%E2%80%9D-alumna-dr-laura|url-status=live}}

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".{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=What is Vegan Studies? Exploring an Emerging Field|url=https://honors.appstate.edu/sites/honors.appstate.edu/files/for-web_fall2019-course-catalog_1_1.pdf|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119182147/https://honors.appstate.edu/sites/honors.appstate.edu/files/for-web_fall2019-course-catalog_1_1.pdf|archive-date=2021-01-19|access-date=|website=Appalachian State University}}

In January 2022, Wright was found at the center of faculty-student controversy at Western Carolina University. Serving as the Faculty Senate Chair at the time, she publicly spoke out against student's concerns regarding Residential Assistance DEI training.{{Cite web |last=Miller |first=Andrew |date=2022-01-11 |title=Western Carolina students face death threats, faculty mockery for speaking out against 'woke' training |url=https://www.foxnews.com/politics/western-carolina-students-death-threats-mockery-faculty-woke-gender-unicorn |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=Fox News |language=en-US}} Following a Fox News article in which student Resident Assistants spoke about how the training conflicted with their views, Wright organized a t-shirt fundraiser campaign via Custom Ink and posted it to WCU Faculty Senate social media to dismiss students concerns. This campaign was posted to the Faculty Senate Instagram and had a caption which included an advocacy to "make fun of this nonsense."{{Cite web |last=Kays |first=Holly |title=Resident debate: Student, professor field death threats amid debate on diversity training |url=https://smokymountainnews.com/archives/item/32919-resident-debate-student-professor-field-death-threats-amid-debate-on-diversity-training |access-date=2024-02-11 |website=smokymountainnews.com |language=en-gb}} In response to this move made by the Faculty Senate and Wright, students at WCU's campus stated that "the fact that the Faculty Senate can mock students opinions just because they don't agree with them ... makes us feel like we don't have anybody to go to at the school." Chancellor Kelli Brown spoke to the Faculty Senate at their January meeting regarding this issue. In her statement she said, "We need voices to be heard whether we agree or not. We want it to be comfortable for everyone here. We will accomplish this by having open discussions and encouraging dialogue. No faculty, staff, or student should be mocked or receive threats of any kind."Western Carolina Faculty Senate. (2022, Jan. 19). Faculty Senate Minutes. Western Carolina University Archive. https://www.wcu.edu/WebFiles/PDFs/FS_Minutes_1_19_2022.pdf

• University of North Carolina Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching (2018){{cite news |title=Wright Named One of Top Teachers in UNC System |url=https://news-prod.wcu.edu/2018/08/wright-named-one-of-top-teachers-in-unc-system/ |access-date=4 January 2019 |work=Western Carolina University |date=Aug 23, 2018 |archive-date=5 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190105042757/https://news-prod.wcu.edu/2018/08/wright-named-one-of-top-teachers-in-unc-system/ |url-status=live }}
• National Humanities Center Fellowship (2012)
• Modern Language Association Florence Howe Award for Feminist Scholarship (2008){{cite web |title=WCML Award Winners |url=http://www.wcml.org/?page_id=82 |publisher=Women's Caucus for the Modern Languages |access-date=4 January 2019 |archive-date=4 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190104231053/http://www.wcml.org/?page_id=82 |url-status=live }}

• (2021) ed. The Routledge Handbook of Vegan Studies. London: Routledge.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1198974799|title=The Routledge handbook of vegan studies|others=Wright, Laura, 1970-|year=2021|isbn=978-0-367-89746-8|location=Abingdon, Oxon|oclc=1198974799|access-date=2021-01-02|archive-date=2021-01-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119182230/https://www.worldcat.org/title/routledge-handbook-of-vegan-studies/oclc/1198974799|url-status=live}}
• (2019) ed. Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism. Reno: University of Nevada Press.{{cite book|author=Laura Wright|title=Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Dvi_vQEACAAJ|year=2019|publisher=University of Nevada Press|isbn=978-1-948908-11-5|access-date=2019-03-13|archive-date=2021-01-19|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119182247/https://books.google.com/books?id=Dvi_vQEACAAJ|url-status=live}}{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=Through a Vegan Studies Lens: Textual Ethics and Lived Activism|url=https://thebrooksinstitute.org/node/260|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119182150/https://thebrooksinstitute.org/node/260|archive-date=2021-01-19|access-date=2021-01-19|website=Brooks Institute}}
• (2015) The Vegan Studies Project: Food, Animals, and Gender in the Age of Terror. Athens: University of Georgia Press.{{cite web |title=Laura Wright |url=https://www.amazon.com/Laura-Wright/e/B001KDX1UM/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1545324588&sr=8-1 |publisher=Amazon |access-date=4 January 2019 |archive-date=19 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210119182150/https://www.amazon.com/Laura-Wright/e/B001KDX1UM/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1545324588&sr=8-1 |url-status=live }}
• (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.

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