Skip to content

Corey Lee Wrenn, Ph.D.

Sociologist and Social Justice Activist

  • Home
  • Blog
  • About
  • Books
  • Essays
    • Abolitionism
    • Animals & Society
    • Effective Animal Advocacy
    • Feminism, Intersectionality & Identity
    • Food, Animal Agriculture & the Environment
    • Irish Studies
    • Media Representations
    • Science, Skepticism & Atheism
    • Social Movement Theory
    • Social Psychology
    • Veganism
  • Podcast
  • Publications
    • Abolitionism
    • Animals & Society
    • Animal Agriculture, Food, and the Environment
    • Effective Animal Rights
    • Feminism, Intersectionality, and Identity
    • Irish Studies
    • Media Representations
    • Science, Skepticism, and Atheism
    • Social Movement Theory
    • Social Psychology
    • Veganism
    • Translations
  • Media
    • Print Interviews
    • Audio & Video Interviews
  • Newsletter
  • Curriculum Vitae
  • Research Interests
  • Contact

Tag: Food

The Social Psychology of Veganism – Moral Licensing

Dr. Corey WrennNovember 16, 2018August 8, 2018
What is Moral Licensing? In one fascinating psychological study, researchers found that doing a bit of good gives folks the license to do something naughty (Sachdeva et al. 2009). So, for instance, a person mayContinue reading
Essays

The Social Psychology of Veganism – Segregation

Dr. Corey WrennNovember 14, 2018July 27, 2018
Sociologists understand segregation to be one of the most potent and fundamental processes of oppression. Creating separation entails highlighting difference. This, in turn, justifies inequality. Segregation literally marginalizes vulnerable groups. Segregation can happen by race,Continue reading
Essays

The Social Psychology of Veganism – Reality Politics

Dr. Corey WrennNovember 7, 2018July 23, 2018
What is Real? In the 1970s, Pringles Newfangled Potato Chips was ordered by the US Food and Drug Administration to call itself by another name. Pringles are fried crisps comprised of compressed potato flakes rather thanContinue reading
Essays

The Social Psychology of Veganism – Variety

Dr. Corey WrennNovember 6, 2018December 21, 2017
Unfamiliarity with new foods can be a major barrier to successfully promoting veganism, but this is an easy enough fix. One study found that non-vegans who were repeatedly exposed to vegan alternatives to “meat” began toContinue reading
Essays

New Package, Same Old Problem: Animal Crackers and Veganism

Dr. Corey WrennSeptember 21, 2018August 31, 2019
In a 2016 blog post, I tackled the cheeky but oft-espressed question as to whether or not animal crackers are vegan.  Technically, the ingredients are vegan, but what do these cookies symbolically represent in aContinue reading
Essays

Can Flexitarianism Facilitate a Vegan World? Research Suggests Another Agenda

Dr. Corey WrennAugust 31, 2018
Can flexitarianism build a vegan world? In a meta-analysis of dozens of articles on vegan motivation, flexitarian dietary patterns, and consumer psychology, I conclude that the ideology of semi-vegetarianism promoted by the vegan/Nonhuman Animal rightsContinue reading
Publications

How Effective is the Vegan Lecture? Exam Scores Tell a Horrifying Story

Dr. Corey WrennAugust 16, 2018
How Many Animals Killed? Can you estimate how many animals are killed for food in the United States each year? In 2015, I added this innocuous extra credit question at the end of an examContinue reading
Publications

Why Food Justice is a Feminist Issue

Dr. Corey WrennAugust 15, 2018
In an interview with Alternet's "Here's Why Our Food Systems are a Central Feminist Issue," I was asked to elaborate on women's contributions to critical food justice and how current sexual politics inhibit or evenContinue reading
Interviews

The Problem with Milk Not Jails

Dr. Corey WrennAugust 7, 2018January 18, 2019
Food Justice and Prison Abolition The American prison system threatens not only urban communities but extends into rural areas as well. The food justice movement has become increasingly aware of this association and has aligned withContinue reading
Essays

Solving Moral Conflicts in a Non-Vegan World

Dr. Corey WrennMay 12, 2018January 11, 2019
In "How to Help When It Hurts?" my friend and colleague Cheryl Abbate considers an ethical conundrum often facing vegan activists, advocates, and rescuers who feel responsible for the well-being of Nonhuman Animals in adverseContinue reading
Publications

Posts navigation

Older posts
Newer posts


Dr. Wrenn is Lecturer of Sociology with the School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research at the University of Kent and co-director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Political Movements. She was awarded Exemplary Diversity Scholar, 2016 by the University of Michigan’s National Center for Institutional Diversity. She served as council member with the American Sociological Association’s Animals & Society section (2013-2016), was elected Chair in 2018, and is co-founder of the International Association of Vegan Sociologists. She serves as Book Review Editor to Society & Animals and is a member of The Vegan Society’s Research Advisory Committee. Dr. Wrenn has been published in several peer-reviewed academic journals including the Journal of Gender Studies, Feminist Media Studies, Environmental Values, Disability & Society, Food, Culture & Society, and Society & Animals. In July 2013, she founded the Vegan Feminist Network, an academic-activist project engaging intersectional social justice praxis. She is the author of A Rational Approach to Animal Rights: Extensions in Abolitionist Theory (Palgrave MacMillan 2016), Piecemeal Protest: Animal Rights in the Age of Nonprofits (University of Michigan Press 2019), and Animals in Irish Society (SUNY Press 2021).

ORCID iD iconhttps://orcid.org/0000-0003-4041-0015

 

Newsletter

Receive research updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to my newsletter.

coreyleewrenn

Vegan feminist author and sociologist

#veganism #animalrights #abolition #veganfeminism #veganism
#animalrights #abolition #veganfeminism #veganstudies #animalrightstheory #animalethics #socialmovements
Monster trucks with the boys Monster trucks with the boys
I wrote a book on the importance of factionalism: I wrote a book on the importance of factionalism: "Piecemeal Protest: Animal Rights in the Age of Nonprofits" (University of Michigan Press 2019). Factionalism and disagreement help a movement grow. My analysis of 40+ years of mobilization tracks the consequences, positive and negative, of a movement in debate and discord.

#veganism #animalrights #veganfeminism #veganstudies #socialmovements #socialchange
Common sense is often dictated by those in power. Common sense is often dictated by those in power. This is why open discourse, critical thought, debate and even factionalism are necessary for healthy social movements 

#veganism #animalrights #veganfeminism #veganstudies #sexism #animalrightstheory #animalethics #socialmovements #socialchange
Existence bias is the social psychological phenome Existence bias is the social psychological phenomenon that, just because something exists, it is assumed to be the best or right way to arrange things. In the animal rights movement, campaigns and tactics can emerge because of funder influence, capitalist cooptation, sexism, racism, tradition, etc., and often have nothing at all to do with efficacy. This is another reason why debate and critical thinking, even factionalism in some cases, are necessary for movement growth. 

Bad activism needs to be challenged. Status quo activism does not always equate to effective activism. 

#socialmovements #animalrightsactivist #veganism #animalrights #veganfeminism #veganstudies #veganpsychology #animalethics #animalrightstheory
🚨🚨🚨 Watch out, shes a 100% baddie!!!!! 🚨🚨🚨 Watch out, shes a 100% baddie!!!!!
How everyone is handling the unusual thunderstorms How everyone is handling the unusual thunderstorms (thunder and lightening is extremely rare in England, but we've been having unusually consistent hot weather). Keeley Jr., freaked out from the booming, deaf Mishka is barking at Keeley's reaction (Mishka relies on the cats quite a bit for information), and baby Cassie is just unsure but staying close to the group! This is her first summer and it sure is wonky one!
Social movements need fractures and disagreement t Social movements need fractures and disagreement to learn, grow and adapt. Rather than look at disunity in the movement as a failure or a waste of resources, better to accept it as, first, inevitable, and second, a healthy part of the process.

#veganism #animalrights #veganfeminism #veganstudies #socialmovements #factionalism
Climate change is suffered by all of us big and sm Climate change is suffered by all of us big and small because some people want to exploit animals for food. 

Animal agriculture is believed to be the 2nd or third leading cause of climate crisis. Shifting to a plantbased economy saves lives on so many levels.

#veganism #animalrights #veganfeminism #veganstudies #climatechange #heatwave #inequality #animals
Vegan feminist book review for your beach reading Vegan feminist book review for your beach reading list...or not! 

"Bridges of Madison County" explores changing gender roles and the strain of conservative midwestern family life in the 1960s. In doing so, it often overlaps the hippie photographer male protagonist with images of animal wildness, wanderlust and vegetarianism to harken an alternative, more peaceful, yet still powerful masculinity. In contrast, the female protagonist, a romanitic Italian war bride trapped by motherhood and social conventions in a remote farmstead grapples with the stifling, if secure and predictable aspects of "civilized" living.Her character's struggle is punctuated by imagery of meat, domestication and denaturalized life. 

#veganbook #veganfeminism #veganstudies #bridgesofmadisoncounty  #feministliterature #criticalanimalstudies
Mainstream p*rn designed for hegemonic male consum Mainstream p*rn designed for hegemonic male consumption sexualizes gender inequality and female subservience. Why do we want to overlay scripts of fetishized patriarchal power onto veganism? 

#veganism #animalrights #veganfeminism #veganstudies #sexism #peta #feminism
The Vegan Society is regularly trolled for acknowl The Vegan Society is regularly trolled for acknowledging the entangled mechanisms of oppression.  I worry about the growing voice of Trump veganism in the animal rights movement...it is so vitriolic and counterproductive...and its been creeping into positions of power, even The Vegan Society itself

#veganism #animalrights #veganfeminism #veganstudies #intersectionality #genderfluidity
Good morning from beautiful Canterbury, my neighb Good morning from beautiful Canterbury,  my neighborhood flock is enjoying a much needed break from the unusually high temperatures we've been having this summer

#climatechange #pigeonlove #animalrights #rainyday #Canterbury #canterburycathedral
Me and the fam decided to try Broadstairs again, t Me and the fam decided to try Broadstairs again, taking the wonky route via the open air bus to the Ramsgate paddling pool, located in the Grade II listed building built in the Italian Renaissance style in the 1920s. Strangely, it had vegan pizza! And beer! Weird! Might return! Then back to Broadstairs on the bus to check out the seaside pubs and make our righteous pilgrimage to Lucky House to partake in their expansive vegan menu 🫠 

#veganism #veganfoodlovers #broadstairs #kent #britishsummer #britishhistory #deafdogsofinstagram
Naked campaigning in animal rights is not only lac Naked campaigning in animal rights is not only lacking in evidence of efficacy, it is also premised on white privilege as black and brown persons have been animalized as part of active efforts to racially suppress some groups. White bodies, in other words, read differently in a white dominant society. 

#veganism #animalrights #veganfeminism #veganstudies #sexism #racialjustice #blackfeminism
Came for the vegan hair salon, stayed for the swee Came for the vegan hair salon, stayed for the sweet sea views and cute witchy shops. There used to be a vegan restaurant in town. It has moved on I suppose, but Broadstairs still has lots to offer. The vegan chickn balls at Lucky House ate the best kept secret, but Posillipos on the sea front has a superb Italian menu 👌 Probably my favorite beach in Kent and perfect for eating chips by the sea. Charles Dickens also called Broadstairs home for a while and his house can be seen from the beach.

Don't visit on a Monday morning, almost EVERYTHING was shut!

#veganism #veganuk #witchyvibes #veganfeminism #britishsummer #broadstairs #kent #veganfoodlovers
Follow on Instagram
Proudly powered by WordPress | Theme: Elfie by elfWP.