archives, animals & activism: entangling vegan pasts, presents and futures

This talk was first given at the human geography seminar series at the University of Birmingham (UK) on 22nd January 2019The research drawn on for this talk is from my PhD research at the University of Birmingham, on veganism, a summary of which can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1f…

My PhD included an eight-month archival research project at The British Library, working with the archives of animal activist, Richard D. Ryder. The outcomes of this project, and histories of animal activism in the UK, can be found on the British Library sponsored Archiving Activism website, under ‘Animal Guide’: https://archivingactivism.com/categor…

I also spoke to many vegans in the UK about their experiences, ethics, and practices, and I am very grateful to everyone who took the time to speak with me and help with this project.

I tweet on my research and more widely on veganism at @katiecmoliver

Image credits:

‘The Vegetarian Messenger and Health Review’ and ‘In Search of Veganism’, in The Vegan, Leslie J. Cross, 1949 image sources: http://vegansociety.today/

Speciesism: The Original Leaflet, Richard D. Ryder, The Ryder Papers, The British Library, 1970

Anonymous for the Voiceless, 2018, https://youtu.be/2tEjtOxeoiI

All animal images: ‘Jo-Anne MacArthur/We Animals’ http://weanimals.org/

RSPCA Assured/McDonald’s: https://www.rspcaassured.org.uk/where…

‘Paid to Lie’, SpyCops, Lush Campaign 2018, image source: https://inews.co.uk/news/lush-drops-s…

Animal Liberation Front image: https://realfacesofanimalrights.com/u…

‘The Rights of Animals’, 1965, Brigid Brophy

Further reading/works cited:

Ann Laura Stoler, 2011, Along the Archival Grain: Epistemic anxieties and colonial common sense

Brigid Brophy, ‘The Rights of Animals’, 1965, The Sunday Times

Carol J Adams, 1990, The Sexual Politics of Meat

Carol J Adams, 2015, Neither Man Nor Beast Cities: Nature’s New Wild, 2019, BBC

Doreen Massey, 2005, For space

Elizabeth Scarry, 1985, The body in pain: The Making and Unmaking of the World

George Yancy, 2005, Whiteness and the Return of the Black Body

Gloria Anzaldua, 1987, Borderlands/La Frontera

Hilda Kean, 1998, Animal Rights: Political and Social Change in Britain since 1800

Jacques Derrida, 2005, The Animal that therefore I Am

JM Coetzee, 1999, The Lives of Animals

Kim Stallwood, 2015, GROWL: Life Lessons, Hard Truths, and Bold Strategies from an Animal Advocate

Leslie Cross, 1949, https://gentleworld.org/veganism-defi…

Richard D. Ryder, 2010, Speciesism Again: The Original Leaflet http://www.veganzetta.org/wp-content/…

Richard D. Ryder, 2011, Speciesism, Painism and Happiness: A Morality for the 21st Century

Richard J. White, 2015, Following in the Footsteps of Élisée Reclus: Disturbing Places of Inter- Species Violence That Are Hidden in Plain Sight

Rosi Braidotti, 2008, Of poststructuralist ethics and nomadic subjects

Roslind Godlovitch, 1971, Animals, Men and Morals

Simon Springer, 2011, Violence sits in places? Cultural practice, neoliberal rationalism, and virulent imaginative geographies

The Truth About Vegans, 2019, Channel 4

Thomas Nagel, 1974, What is it like to be a bat?

Yuval Noah Harari, 2011, Sapiens

With thanks to:

All of the vegans who I have had the pleasure to work with and speak to over the last two years My colleagues and supervisors at the University of Birmingham for their support, questions, and advice Colleagues at The British Library, particularly Polly Russell, Jonathon Pledge, Gill Ridgeley, Sarah Evans, and Rachel Tavernor Kim Stallwood, Kate Levey, and Carol J. Adams for their help, conversations, and insights on animal/vegan histories and the women of animal rights