Gabriella Coleman

Education

After completing her high school education at St. John's School in San Juan, Puerto Rico, Coleman graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in religious studies from Columbia University in May 1996. She moved to the University of Chicago where she completed a Master of Arts in socio-cultural anthropology in August 1999. She was awarded her PhD in socio-cultural anthropology for her dissertation The Social Construction of Freedom in Free and Open Source Software: Hackers, Ethics, and the Liberal Tradition in 2005.

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 before being appointed assistant professor of media, culture and communication at New York University in September 2007.

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".

In January 2012, she moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada to take up the Wolfe Chair in Scientific & Technological Literacy at McGill University. The same year, she also spoke at Webstock 2012 in Wellington, New Zealand.

Study of hackers and hacking

While Coleman is best known for her popular ethnography on the hacktivist collective Anonymous, she has published widely on the ethics and politics of computer hacking. Contesting the idea that hackers have a singular ethic, her publications theorize hacker diversity, through the concept of hacker genres, which refers to the multiple historical genealogies from which hackers hail today, as well as the distinct ethical lessons that emerge from these lineages. Along with emphasizing differences among hackers, her work considers the elements that also bind hackers of distinct traditions together, especially through a commitment to what she calls the craft and craftiness of hacking. While hackers, she argues, cultivate the social conditions to produce high quality work (the craft ethic), they also embrace a crafty sensibility, which she characterizes as follows:What is unique to hackers is how an outward display of craftiness has surpassed mere instrumentality to take on its own, robust life; craftiness and its associated attributes, such as wit and guile, are revered as much for their form as for their function.Coleman is committed to making her scholarship more widely accessible through various experimental and traditional avenues. In 2019, she launched Hack_Curio—Decoding the Cultures of Hacking, an online museum featuring short video clips on computer hacking, each accompanied by expert-written expository pieces. The goal of the site is to challenge hacker stereotypes and highlight hacking's significance in global culture and politics. She has also appeared in many documentaries on hacker-related topics, and, in 2021, she co-produced and hosted a 10-part series podcast on hackers for BBC Radio 4, entitled The Hackers*.*

Her inaugural book Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking, released with a creative commons license, interrogates the principles and paradoxes at the heart of contemporary liberalism from the vantage point of a community dedicated to creating free and open-source software. The book explores how hackers champion what Coleman defines as “productive freedom” in the face of Neo-liberal transformations in intellectual property legislation. This concept encompasses the engineering traditions, licensing mechanisms, and ethical guidelines that hackers have devised to ensure their autonomy. The book also examines what Coleman calls “codes of values” and includes an in-depth examination of the poetics of hacker humor, along with the complex forms of political governance created by hackers that help enable the virtual development of software.

Study of Anonymous

Coleman's work on Anonymous has led to her becoming a regular media commentator in addition to her academic publications. In July 2010, Coleman made reference to the Anonymous "project" or "operation" Chanology against the Church of Scientology and uses what would become a central motif in her descriptions of the group, the "trickster archetype", which she argues is "often not being a very clean and savory character, but perhaps vital for social renewal". Coleman states that she had "been thinking about the linkages between the trickster and hackers" for "a few years" before a stay in hospital led her to read Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art by Lewis Hyde:

Coleman's theory concerning Anonymous (and associated groups such as 4chan) as the trickster has moved from academia to the mainstream media. Recent references include the three-part series on Anonymous in Wired magazine and The New York Times. Coleman has also been critical of some of the mainstream coverage of Anonymous. In Is it a Crime? The Transgressive Politics of Hacking in Anonymous (with Michael Ralph), Coleman responds to an article on the group by Joseph Menn in the Financial Times, noting:

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". Even Coleman admits she does not fully understand Anonymous, she told the BBC:

Coleman's multi-year ethnographic research on Anonymous culminated in the publication of Hacker Hoaxer Whistleblower Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous. Awarded the American Anthropological Association's Diane Forsythe prize and described by Alan Moore, the co-author of V for Vendetta as "brilliantly lucid", 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.". 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.

The white nationalist troll weev, also treated as a foil to Anonymous, is presented as an example of the terrifying side of trickstermism, while Anonymous, argues Coleman, represents a more positive side, a force for political hope and renewal.

The issues of tricksters, trolls and Anonymous was further explored by a group of anthropologists in special issue of the Journal Hau that reviewed Coleman's book.

In 2023, Hau also published her Lewis Morgan Henry Lecture comparing and contrasting Anonymous with the anonymous far right and QAnon, highlighting the subtle yet fundamental—and often overlooked—differences among these three formations, despite their origins on similar image boards.

Professionalization of hacking and security

In 2019, Data & Society, a research institute based in New York City, commissioned Coleman for a piece that eventually became “Wearing Many Hats: The Rise of the Professional Security Hacker”. The study covers the transformative period from 1990 to 2000, during which hackers undertook initiatives to validate their professional standing. Based on archival and interview-based research with former underground hackers, Coleman and her co-author Matt Goerzen explore how these hackers transitioned from being viewed as dangerous anarchists by the government and media to becoming advocates of computer security.

The piece highlights hackers’ pioneering of full-disclosure security research practices, where vulnerabilities were openly shared to promote transparency and accountability within the security community. It also delves into their efforts to shape their public image through strategic maneuvers such as publicity stunts, media collaborations, and rhetorical interventions. A central aspect of their rebranding involved conceptualizing “imaginary hats”—black, white, and gray—symbolizing different attitudes toward legality and ethical boundaries. This symbolic representation allowed hackers to communicate their willingness to operate within established legal frameworks and influenced perceptions of their trustworthiness.

A condensed version of “Wearing Many Hats” was published by the cybersecurity publication ReadMe later in 2022 with the title “From Subversives to CEOs: How Radical Hackers Built Today’s Cybersecurity Industry.”

Publications

• — (2023). From Busting Cults to Breeding Cults: Anonymous h/acktivism vs. the (a)nonymous Far Right and QAnon. Hau: Journal of Ethnographic Theory 13(2): 248–263
• — (2022) Wearing Many Hats: The Rise of the Professional Security Hacker. Data and Society Special Report.
• — (2021) "Reconsidering Anonymity and Anonymous in the Age of Narcissism." In The Aesthetics and Politics of the Online Self. Donatella Della Ratta et al. eds. London: Palgrave Macmillan: 239–262.
• — (2019) How Has the Fight for Anonymity and Privacy Changed? Special Section on online anonymity for Media, Culture & Society 41(4): 565–571.
• — (2019). “The Logics and Legacy of Anonymous.” In International Handbook of International Researchers. Jeremy Hunsinger, Lisbeth Klastrup, Matthew M. Allen, eds. New York: Springer: 1–22.
• — (2017). “Gopher, Translator, and Trickster.” In Truth Be Told. Didier Fassin, ed. Durham: Duke University Press: 19–46.
• — (2017). The Public Interest Hack. Limn: Hacks, Leaks, and Breaches. Gabriella Coleman and Christopher M. Kelty, eds., Issue 8.

References

References

1. "Gabriella Coleman".
2. "Curriculum Vitae". New York University.
3. "Abstract of 'The social construction of freedom in free and open source software: Hackers, ethics, and the liberal tradition'". FlossHub.
4. "Faculty page for Gabriella Coleman". New York University.
5. "Spring 2011 Issue". Institute for Advanced Studies.
6. "Faculty page for Department Professors". McGill University.
7. [http://www.webstock.org.nz/12/speakers/coleman.php Gabriella Coleman. Speakers. Webstock 2012 – 13–17 February 2012]
8. (2022-02-28). "February 2022".
9. Parsons, Lian. (2022-02-23). "Wading into culture of computer hackers".
10. "Geeks are the New Guardians of Our Civil Liberties".
11. Coleman, Gabriella. (2013). "Coding Freedom". [[Princeton University Press]].
12. Coleman, Gabriella. (2010-09-21). "The Anthropology of Hackers".
13. (September 2008). "Hacker practice: Moral genres and the cultural articulation of liberalism". Anthropological Theory.
14. Coleman, Gabriella. (2017-02-01). "From Internet Farming to Weapons of the Geek". Current Anthropology.
15. Coleman, Gabriella. (2017). "From Internet Farming to Weapons of the Geek". [[Current Anthropology]].
16. "HackCurio: Decoding the Cultures of Hacking".
17. "Gabriella Coleman {{!}} Producer, Additional Crew".
18. "BBC Radio 4 - The Hackers - Available now".
19. Norton, Quinn. (18 July 2010). "Why Do Anonymous Geeks Hate Scientologists?".
20. Coleman, Gabriella. "Hacker and Troller as Trickster". SocialText Journal.
21. Norton, Quinn. (8 November 2011). "Anonymous 101: Introduction to the Lulz".
22. Walker, Rob. (16 July 2010). "When Funny Goes Viral". The New York Times.
23. Menn, Joseph. (23 September 2011). "They're watching. And they can bring you down". [[Financial Times]].
24. Coleman, Gabriella. "Is it a Crime? The Transgressive Politics of Hacking in Anonymous". SocialText Journal.
25. Coleman, Gabriella. "Our Weirdness Is Free: The logic of Anonymous — online army, agent of chaos, and seeker of justice". Triple Canopy.
26. Cox, Simon. (26 November 2012). "Anonymous, hacktivism and the rise of the cyber protester". BBC Radio 4.
27. Coleman, E. Gabriella. (2014). "Hacker, hoaxer, whistleblower, spy : the many faces of Anonymous". Verso.
28. (8 September 2016). "Alan Moore: By the Book". The New York Times.
29. Coleman, Gabriella. (Autumn 2015). "The anthropological trickster". University of Chicago.
30. Coleman, E. Gabriella. (2023-09-01). "From busting cults to breeding cults: Anonymous h/acktivism vs. the (a)nonymous far right and QAnon". HAU: Journal of Ethnographic Theory.
31. "Wearing Many Hats: The Rise of the Professional Security Hacker".
32. Coleman, Gabriella. (2022-05-11). "From subversives to CEOs: How radical hackers built today's cybersecurity industry".