Imagining Russian Hackers:  Myths of Men and Machines
Yale University

“Imagining Russian Hackers: Myths of Men and Machines” is a multi-part research initiative based at Yale University.  Led by Marijeta Bozovic and Benjamin Peters, the group aims to combine studies of the prehistories and traceable present of Russian and East European “hacker culture” with close readings of cultural depictions of hacker imaginaries from both sides of the (former) Cold War.  In media coverage, Russian hackers wage an invisible war against modern western democracy: the (former) West cultivates a hate-love relationship with this vividly imagined, sometimes embodied, virtual and yet profoundly human virus. An ideal scapegoat, the Russian hacker offers a story too tempting not to tell over and over. But what can—and do—we know about the phenomenon, and how can we make better sense of the imaginaries?