March 29, 2016: Invited Speaker Seminar: Inside Anonymous

Dr. Gabriella COLEMAN
Associate Professor, McGill University

Tuesday, March 29, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Room EV003.309

Abstract

Anonymous, a group of hackers, activists and technologists, have slammed onto the global stage with a series of high-profile operations, disrupting communications, shaking state intelligence agencies and fighting global corporations. Since gaining mainstream attention after their attacks on the Church of Scientology in 2008, they've become key players from Occupy Wall Street to the Arab Spring. But how much do we know about who they are and what motivates them?

In 2008 Gabriella Coleman set out to study the rise of this global phenomenon just as some of its members were turning to political protest and dangerous disruption. In this event she discusses the history, culture, and ethics of Anonymous, along with considering some of their more important political interventions.

Biography

Gabriella (Biella) Coleman holds the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University. Trained as a cultural anthropologist, she researches, writes, and teaches on computer hackers and digital activism. Her first book, Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking, has been published with Princeton University Press.

Her second book, Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous, published by Verso, has been named to Kirkus Reviews’ Best Books of 2014 and has been awarded the 2015 American Anthropological Association’s Diana Forsythe Prize granted by the Society for the Anthropology of Work (SAW) and the Committee on the Anthropology of Science, Technology and Computing.