Spring2026/STS@VTSeminar Series:Coleen Carrigan Assoc.ProfessorDept.of Engineering&Society at UVA

Описание: Cracking the Bro Code

Coleen Carrigan
Associate Professor
Department of Engineering and Society
University of Virginia

Cracking the Bro-Code addresses the increasing public concern as to why people from dominant racial and gender groups have preferential access to positions in computing. I present my ethnographic study of sexism and racism in contemporary computing culture theorized through the analytical frame of the “Bro-Code.” Drawing from feminist STS and anthropology, I share the lived experiences of women, nonbinary individuals, and people of color, including my own experiences in tech, to show that computing has a serious cultural problem.

I connect altruism, computing, race, and gender to advance the theory that social purpose is an important factor to consider in working toward equity in computing. I argue that transforming computing culture from hostile to welcoming has the potential not only to change who produces computing technology, but also the core values of its production, with possible impacts on social applications. Cracking the Bro-Code explains how digital bosses have come to operate in our society, dodging taxes and oversight with impunity, and how some programmers who look like them are enchanted with a sense of divine right. In the context of computing’s powerful influence on the world, I theorize on how the cultural mechanisms in computing workspaces sustaining sexism, harassment, and technocracy—the pervasive belief that computer technology is always needed and always munificent—impact both workers harmed by such violence as well as society at large.

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Dr. Coleen Carrigan is a Copenhaver Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. A recipient of a National Science Foundation Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award, Carrigan uses ethnography to advance knowledge on the allocation of resources, opportunities and respect in US engineering and computer science. In 2025, President Biden names Professor Carrigan a recipient of the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE).