Gabriella Coleman
Gabriella Coleman | |
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Anonymous | |
Website | www |
Enid Gabriella Coleman (usually known as Gabriella Coleman or Biella; born 1973) is an
Education
After completing her high school education at St. John's School in
Academic career
Coleman held positions including a postdoctoral fellowship at the Center for Cultural Analysis, Rutgers University and the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship, Program in Science, Technology & Society, University of Alberta[2] before being appointed assistant professor of media, culture and communication at New York University in September 2007.[4]
During 2010–2011, Coleman spent some time working at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton as the recipient of the "2010–11 Ginny and Robert Loughlin Founders' Circle Member in the School of Social Science".[5]
In January 2012, she moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada to take up the Wolfe Chair in Scientific & Technological Literacy at McGill University.[6] The same year, she also spoke at Webstock 2012 in Wellington, New Zealand.[7]
Study of Anonymous
Coleman's work on
Within the first few pages, it was undeniable: there are many links to be made between the trickster and hacking. Many of these figures, push boundaries of all sorts: they upset ideas of propriety and property; they use their sharpened wits sometimes for play, sometimes for political ends; they get trapped by their cunning (which happens ALL the time with tricksters! That is how they learn); and they remake the world, technically, socially, and legally and includes software, licensing and even forms of literature.[9]
Coleman's theory concerning Anonymous (and associated groups such as
more critical engagement with the issues he raises is likely to yield important lessons for scholarly and journalistic approaches to digital media, protest politics, and cyber-security. Instead of merely depicting hackers as virtual pamphleteers for free speech or as digital outlaws, we need to start asking more specific questions about why and when hackers embrace particular attitudes toward different kinds of laws, explore in greater detail what they are hoping to achieve, and take greater care in examining the consequences.[13]
Our Weirdness Is Free: The logic of Anonymous — online army, agent of chaos, and seeker of justice, Triple Canopy 2012 January, is Coleman's first major piece of length on the group and draws from a range of observations of those she describes as "everything and nothing at once".[14] Even Coleman admits she does not fully understand Anonymous, she told the BBC:
You can never have complete certainty as to what's going on, who's involved, "not being able to fully understand who's behind the mask" is what gives Anonymous political power.[15]
Coleman's multi-year ethnographic research on Anonymous culminated in the publication of Hacker Hoaxer Whistleblower Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous.[16] Awarded the American Anthropological Association's Diane Forsythe prize and described by Alan Moore, the co-author of V for Vendetta as "brilliantly lucid",[17] the book charts the history, rise, and impact of the Anonymous movement. Even though the book deploys journalistic writing conventions, Coleman continues to analytically frame the activity of trolling and Anonymous in terms of tricksterism. She argues in her book that tricksters "are well positioned to impart lessons—regardless of their intent.".[16] And continues to note:
Their actions need not be accepted, much less endorsed, to extract positive value. We may see them as edifying us with liberating or terrifying perspectives, symptomatic of underlying problems that deserve scrutiny, functioning as a positive force toward renewal, or as distorting and confusing shadows.[16]
The white nationalist troll
The issues of tricksters, trolls and Anonymous was further explored by a group of anthropologists in special issue of the Journal Hau[18] that reviewed Coleman's book.
Publications
- — (2017). "From Internet Farming to Weapons of the Geek". Current Anthropology. 58 (1): 91–102. S2CID 151855034.
- — (2014). Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. London: Verso Books. ISBN 9781781685839.
- — (2013). "Anonymous in Context: The Politics and Power behind the Mask" (PDF). Internet Governance Papers. Waterloo, Ontario: The Centre for International Governance Innovation. pp. 1–21.
- — (2013). Coding freedom : the ethics and aesthetics of hacking (PDF). Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-14460-3.
- — (2012). "8. Phreaks, Hackers, and Trolls: The Politics of Transgression and Spectacle". In Mandiberg, Michael (ed.). The Social Media Reader. New York City: New York University Press. pp. 99–119. ISBN 9780814764060.
- — (2010). "Ethnographic approaches to digital media". Annual Review of Anthropology. 39: 487–505. S2CID 146531830.
- — (2010). "The Hacker Conference: A Ritual Condensation and Celebration of a Lifeworld" (PDF). Anthropological Quarterly. 83 (1): 47–72. S2CID 142356750. Archived from the original(PDF) on 5 May 2014. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
- —; Golub, Alex (1 September 2008). "Hacker practice: Moral genres and the cultural articulation of liberalism" (PDF). Anthropological Theory. 8 (3): 255–277. S2CID 145423454. Archived from the original(PDF) on 28 March 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- — (2008). "20. The Politics of Rationality: Psychiatric Survivor's Challenge to Psychiatry" (PDF). In da Costa, Beatriz; Philip, Kavita (eds.). Tactical biopolitics : art, activism, and technoscience. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. pp. 341–364. ISBN 9780262042499. Archived from the original(PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 28 December 2014.
- — (2005). The social construction of freedom in free and open source software: Hackers, ethics, and the liberal tradition (Thesis). Chicago, Illinois: The University of Chicago. 3181325.
- — (2001). "High‐Tech guilds in the era of global capital". Anthropology of Work Review. 22 (1): 28–32. .
References
- ^ "Gabriella Coleman". anthropology.fas.harvard.edu. Retrieved 9 November 2021.
- ^ a b c "Curriculum Vitae" (PDF). New York University. Archived from the original (PDF) on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ "Abstract of 'The social construction of freedom in free and open source software: Hackers, ethics, and the liberal tradition'". FlossHub. Archived from the original on 1 December 2017. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ "Faculty page for Gabriella Coleman". New York University. Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ "Spring 2011 Issue". Institute for Advanced Studies. Archived from the original on 6 January 2013. Retrieved 17 February 2012.
- ^ "Faculty page for Department Professors". McGill University. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Gabriella Coleman | Speakers | Webstock 2012 – 13–17 February 2012
- ^ Norton, Quinn (18 July 2010). "Why Do Anonymous Geeks Hate Scientologists?". Gizmodo.com. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Coleman, Gabriella. "Hacker and Troller as Trickster". SocialText Journal. Archived from the original on 17 January 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Norton, Quinn (8 November 2011). "Anonymous 101: Introduction to the Lulz". Wired.com. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Walker, Rob (16 July 2010). "When Funny Goes Viral". The New York Times. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Menn, Joseph (23 September 2011). "They're watching. And they can bring you down". Financial Times. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Coleman, Gabriella. "Is it a Crime? The Transgressive Politics of Hacking in Anonymous". SocialText Journal. Archived from the original on 1 February 2012. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Coleman, Gabriella. "Our Weirdness Is Free: The logic of Anonymous — online army, agent of chaos, and seeker of justice". canopycanopycanopy.com. Triple Canopy. Retrieved 22 January 2012.
- ^ Cox, Simon (26 November 2012). "Anonymous, hacktivism and the rise of the cyber protester". bbc.co.uk. BBC Radio 4. Retrieved 26 February 2024.
- ^ OCLC 890807781.
- ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 8 September 2019.
- ^ Coleman, Gabriella (Autumn 2015). "The anthropological trickster". HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory. 5 (2). University of Chicago. Retrieved 26 February 2024 – via journals.uchicago.edu.
External links
- Official website
- Riley, Theresa (25 April 2013). "Are Geeks the New Guardians of Our Civil Liberties?". Moyers – Public Affairs Television. Retrieved 25 April 2013.
- Appearances on C-SPAN