Matthew Salzano
Joint appoinment with the Program in Writing and Rhetoric and School of Communication and Journalism/Alda Center for Communicating Science
IDEA Fellow in Ethical AI, Information Systems, and Data Science and Literacy

Matthew Salzano is a scholar of rhetoric and digital culture with a particular emphasis on how digital technology, including artificial intelligence, impacts and interacts with social justice and participatory practices of deliberation, argumentation, and protest. Throughout his research and teaching, he questions: what does it mean to participate ethically in civic life in a digital age?

Matthew is deeply committed to empowering his students as they explore and engage with complex ideas, to test ideas and disagree respectfully, and to create an open and welcoming space for all to reflect on what it means and how to live in a diverse and inclusive society. 

His courses explore the history, theory, and criticism of media and rhetoric from a critical perspective, and students can often expect to experiment with digital humanities projects like making Twitter bots or building digital archives.    

Matthew’s scholarship has appeared in Critical Studies in Media Communication, Women’s Studies in Communication, and Communication Teacher, and has received awards from the Association for the Rhetoric of Science, Technology, and Medicine, and the National Communication Association. He holds a PhD and MA in communication from the University of Maryland and a BA in communication and women’s and gender studies from Pacific Lutheran University.