Dr. Gabriella Coleman

Biography

Gabriella (Biella) Coleman is a full professor in the Department of Anthropology at Harvard University and is a faculty associate at the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. A trained anthropologist, her scholarship encompasses politics, cultures, and the ethics of hacking. She is the author of the book "Coding Freedom: Ethics Aesthetics Hacking," published in 2013 by Princeton University Press, and has published works such as "Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: Faces of Anonymous" (Verso, 2014), which was awarded the Diana Forsythe Prize by the American Anthropological Association. Coleman is currently completing a multi-year research project focused on the security field and the professionalization of hackers in the 1990s and early 2000s, resulting in the upcoming book "Data Society Reports." She frequently comments on hacker movements, digital culture, and cyberpolitics, and is a strong proponent of making ethnography publicly accessible. Gabriella has delivered lectures and keynotes at various institutions, including Brookings Institution, NASA, Twitter, and the Chicago Humanities Festival. Her research has been supported by organizations such as the Ford Foundation and the National Science Foundation. Joining the Harvard Anthropology Department in 2021, she previously held the Wolfe Chair of Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University and was an assistant professor at the Department of Media, Culture, and Communication at New York University.

Research Interests