Renan Larue

Renan Larue
Larue in 2013
Born	Côtes-d'Armor, France
Education	University of Paris IV Sorbonne (BA in French Literature, 2000) EHESS (MA in History, 2002) University of Paris I Sorbonne (MA in Philosophy, 2003) University of Strasbourg (MA in Classical Literature, 2006) Agrégation de lettres modernes (2007) University of Picardy Jules Verne (PhD in French Literature, 2011)
Occupation(s)	Historian, professor, writer
Known for	Creating the first vegan studies course in the United States
Notable work	Le végétarisme et ses ennemis (2015)
Awards	Best PhD Dissertation Award (University of Picardy Jules Verne, 2011) Prix La Bruyère ("La Bruyère Prize") silver medal (Académie Française, 2016)

Renan Larue is a French writer, literary scholar and historian of vegetarianism. He is the author of several books on vegetarianism or veganism, including Le végétarisme et ses ennemis (2015), a history of vegetarianism from Pythagoras until the modern day, and La pensée végane: 50 regards sur la condition animale (2020). In 2016 he offered the first course in vegan studies in the United States at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Early life and education

Born in the Côtes-d'Armor, Larue studied French literature at the Paris-Sorbonne University, graduating in 2000 with a BA. He went on to obtain three master's degrees: in history from the School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences in Paris in 2002, in philosophy from the University of Paris I in 2003, and in classical literature from the University of Strasbourg in 2006. In 2007, he received an Agrégation de lettres modernes.

Larue was awarded a PhD in French literature in 2011 by the University of Picardy Jules Verne. His PhD dissertation focused on the history of vegetarianism in the West and formed the basis of his first book, Le végétarisme et ses ennemis.

Career

Larue is an assistant professor of French literature at the University of California, Santa Barbara. In 2016 he offered a course in vegan studies, the first course of its kind in the United States. He currently runs the Vegan Studies program at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Writing

In Le végétarisme et ses ennemis (2015), Larue reviews the history of vegetarianism in the West, focusing on the historical figures who defended it, including Pythagoras, Porphyry and Plutarch. He describes the attitudes of the major monotheistic religions towards the ideas conveyed by vegetarians, with particular emphasis on the hostility of the Catholic Church. He then turns to the Age of Enlightenment, where Voltaire played a leading role in the defense of vegetarianism, alongside Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Nicolas de Condorcet, Maupertuis, Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Morelly. The book ends in the 20th century, with the story of the birth of veganism through the Vegan Society co-founded by Donald Watson, Elsie Shrigley and others.

In Le véganisme (2017), co-authored with Valéry Giroux, Larue, himself vegan, defends veganism as a philosophy and way of life, understood as a social and political movement based on a commitment to, as far as practically possible, avoid the subjugation, mistreatment and killing of sentient beings. In Le Végétarisme des Lumières (2019), he examines the medical and philosophical debates around vegetarianism that took place in 18th-century France. He also authored the preface to La révolution antispéciste ("The antispeciesist revolution"), a selection of twelve texts from the journal Cahiers antispécistes ("Antispeciesist notebooks").

Awards

Larue received the Best PhD Dissertation Award from the University of Picardy Jules Verne in 2011. In 2016, the Académie Française awarded him the Prix La Bruyère silver medal for his book Le végétarisme et ses ennemis.

Selected works

• (2014). Voltaire. Larue, Renan (ed.). Pensées végétariennes [Vegetarian thoughts]. Paris: Mille et une nuits. ISBN 978-2-7555-0725-6. OCLC 874779576.
• (2015). Larue, Renan (14 January 2015). Le végétarisme et ses ennemis: vingt-cinq siècles de débats [Vegetarianism and its enemies: Twenty-five centuries of debate] (in French). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. ISBN 978-2-13-061903-1. OCLC 902800957.
• (2017). Giroux, Valéry; Larue, Renan. Le véganisme [Veganism]. Paris: Que sais-je?. ISBN 978-2-13-074947-9. OCLC 1005210137.
• (2019). Larue, Renan. Le végétarisme des Lumières: l'abstinence de viande dans la France du XVIIIe siècle [Vegetarianism during the Enlightenment: Abstinence from meat in 18th-century France]. Paris: Classiques Garnier. ISBN 978-2-406-08709-0. OCLC 1105220048.
• (2020). Larue, Renan. La pensée végane: 50 regards sur la condition animale [Vegan thoughts: 50 perspectives on the condition of animals]. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France. ISBN 978-2130819004