“Internet” and “Hackers”: New Threats and Opportunities

Professor Gabriella Coleman and Professor Thomas Streeter
McGill University and Western University

Has Covid-19 transformed how we will live in the Internet in our digital future? What are the democratic promises of hacktivism and the security dangers of hacker cybercrimes? This webinar will explore the social, ethical and political implications of the new technology-society relationships in the (post)pandemic times of this free-wheeling horizon of and expanded cyberspace.

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About the presenters

Gabriella (Biella) Coleman
Gabriella (Biella) Coleman

Gabriella (Biella) Coleman holds the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University. Trained as an anthropologist, her scholarship covers the politics, cultures, and ethics of hacking. She is the author of two books on computer hackers and the founder and editor of Hack_Curio, a video portal into the cultures of hacking. She is currently working on a book of essays about hackers and the state and will deliver material from the book for the 2020 Henry Morgan Lectures.

Professor Thomas Streeter
Professor Thomas Streeter

Thomas Streeter is Professor in the Faculty of Information and Media Studies at Western University. His book, The Net Effect (2011) is a study of the role of culture in the social construction of internet technology, and his award-winning Selling the Air (1996), analysed the cultural underpinnings of the US broadcast industry and its regulatory apparatus. With Zephyr Teachout, he edited an early volume about internet use in Howard Dean’s run for President, called Mousepads, Shoe Leather, and Hope (2007). His current project examines the shift from printed to digital documentation in routine legal practices from 1980 to the present.