renanlarue@frit.ucsb.edu
Phelps 5214
Renan Larue is Professor of French and Comparative Literature. Agrégé de lettres modernes, he earned an MA in History at EHESS (Paris), an MA in Philosophy at La Sorbonne (Paris), an MA in Classics at Université de Strasbourg, and a PhD in French Literature at UPJV (Amiens). His research primarily focuses on 18th-century French culture and the intellectual history of vegetarianism/veganism from antiquity until now. He is the author of two critical editions (Restif de la Bretonne’s Lettre d’un singe aux êtres de son espèce and Voltaire’s Pensées végétariennes), as well as several monographies such as Le Végétarisme des Lumières (Classiques Garnier, 2019), Le Véganisme (PUF, 2017, with Dr. Valéry Giroux), and Le Végétarisme et ses ennemis (PUF, 2015) for which he received the yearly La Bruyère Prize from the Académie française for best book in moral philosophy. He also edited the first encyclopedia of veganism, La Pensée végane (PUF, 2020). More recently, his research interest has encompassed the concept of anthropocentrism and its discontents, and how Western scientists, writers, and philosophers have discussed the possibility of extraterrestrial civilizations. He co-wrote Les Extraterrestres (PUF, 2022) with Prof. Estiva Reus on that topic. His latest book Anthologie végane, an 800-page-long anthology of texts promoting, discussing or opposing veganism, was published in the fall of 2023. Larue teaches courses on 18th-century French culture, French pop culture, comparative literature, "vegan studies," and an introductory class he created in 2021 about "alien studies."