Roundtable ABSTRACT

“Veganism, is it a fad?”

Deborah Madsen (moderator), Aïcha Bouchelaghem, Kimberly Frohreich, Bryn Skibo

Organized with the Geneva Festival Histoire et Cité

 

The increasingly dominant trend towards a vegan diet promotes the idea that veganism is a contemporary phenomenon. In fact, the philosophy of veganism can be traced from classical Greek and Rome to the European Enlightenment and to the emergence of the United States as a republic founded on the principles of justice and equality. The FNS project entitled “Vegan Literary Studies: An American Textual History, 1776-1900,” hosted by the English Department at UNIGE documents the development of ethical vegan theory and practice throughout the long nineteenth-century. One of the aims of the project is to sensitize the public to this long tradition that stands behind so many of today's practices of consumption.

 

The participants are all past or present members of the FNS project research team. They will present three contemporary points of controversy for discussion – “fake meat,” vivisection and animal experimentation, and alternatives to animal-based materials for clothing and ornamentation – highlighting the historical antecedents that have been identified by the project research. Two of the interventions will be presented in French; two in English; the Q&A will be bilingual.