Enid Gabriella Coleman (usually known as Gabriella Coleman or Biella; born 1973) is an
anthropologist, academic and author whose work focuses on
cultures of hacking and
online activism
Internet activism is the use of electronic communication technologies such as social media, e-mail, and podcasts for various forms of activism to enable faster and more effective communication by citizen movements, the delivery of particular infor ...
, particularly
Anonymous. She previously held the Wolfe Chair in Scientific & Technological Literacy at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
, Montreal,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
, Canada and is currently a full professor at
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...
's Department of Anthropology.
Education
After completing her high school education at St. John's School in
San Juan, Puerto Rico
San Juan (, , ; Spanish for "Saint John") is the capital city and most populous municipality in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, an unincorporated territory of the United States. As of the 2020 census, it is the 57th-largest city under the juri ...
, Coleman graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in
religious studies from
Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
in May 1996.
She moved to the
University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chic ...
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
Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and was ...
and the Izaak Walton Killam Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship, Program in Science, Technology & Society,
University of Alberta
The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a Public university, public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexande ...
before being appointed assistant professor of media, culture and communication at
New York University
New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin.
In 1832, th ...
in September 2007.
During 2010–2011, Coleman spent some time working at the
Institute for Advanced Study
The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), located in Princeton, New Jersey, in the United States, is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent schola ...
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
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
, Quebec, Canada to take up the Wolfe Chair in Scientific & Technological Literacy at
McGill University
McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous ...
.
The same year, she also spoke at
Webstock
Webstock is a web technology conference held in Wellington, New Zealand featuring a range of high-profile speakers covering a variety of web-related topics such as accessibility, usability, ethnographic design and development practices.
Webstoc ...
2012 in
Wellington
Wellington ( mi, Te Whanganui-a-Tara or ) is the capital city of New Zealand. It is located at the south-western tip of the North Island, between Cook Strait and the Remutaka Range. Wellington is the second-largest city in New Zealand by metr ...
, New Zealand.
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
In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story ( god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...
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
A hacker is a person skilled in information technology who uses their technical knowledge to achieve a goal or overcome an obstacle, within a computerized system by non-standard means. Though the term ''hacker'' has become associated in popu ...
" for "a few years" before a stay in hospital led her to read ''Trickster Makes This World: Mischief, Myth, and Art'' by
Lewis Hyde
Lewis Hyde (born 1945) is a scholar, essayist, translator, cultural critic and writer whose scholarly work focuses on the nature of imagination, creativity, and property.
Profile
Hyde was born in Cambridge, MA. He is the son of Elizabeth Sanfor ...
:
Coleman's theory concerning Anonymous (and associated groups such as
4chan
4chan is an anonymous English-language imageboard website. Launched by Christopher "moot" Poole in October 2003, the site hosts boards dedicated to a wide variety of topics, from anime and manga to video games, cooking, weapons, television, ...
) as the
trickster
In mythology and the study of folklore and religion, a trickster is a character in a story ( god, goddess, spirit, human or anthropomorphisation) who exhibits a great degree of intellect or secret knowledge and uses it to play tricks or otherwi ...
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
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
''. 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
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Ni ...
'' 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 #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
:
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
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.".
, 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.