My name is pronounced Day-mon Fist-er, and I use he/him/his pronouns.
I grew up in Birmingham, Alabama and attended the University of Alabama from 1995-2000. From 2000-2002, I worked for the New York Urban Debate League, which supported debate activities in New York City public schools. From 2002-2009, I was a graduate student in the Department of Communication at the University of Pittsburgh, where I worked with Gordon Mitchell (advisor), John Lyne, and Barbara Warnick. From 2009-2016, I was an assistant professor in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I joined the Department of Communication at the University of Maryland in the Fall of 2016.
My research interests are at the confluence of rhetorical theory, media technology, public deliberation, and visual culture. My first book, Networked Media, Networked Rhetorics: Attention and Deliberation in the Early Blogosphere, was published by the Pennsylvania State University Press in November 2014. Copies of research articles can be found here. In 2018, Ancient Rhetorics + Digital Networks, co-edited with Michele Kennerly, was published. I’m currently working on a book tentatively titled Always On: Fashioning Ethos After Wearable Computing.
I teach undergraduate and graduate courses on rhetoric, media, deliberation, and culture. Among the courses I regularly teach at the undergraduate level at the University of Maryland are COMM 450: Ancient Rhetorical Theory, COMM 401: Rhetorical Theories, and COMM 468T: Technology and Digital Culture. At the graduate level, I teach COMM 652: Contemporary Rhetorical Theory, though I have also taught courses related to public deliberation, media, technology, and culture, and digital/networked rhetorics.
When I’m not participating in the above, I spend time with my partner, kiddo, and two canines. I have a deep-seated dislike of tomatoes, a penchant for space operas, and an increasingly mean sand volleyball serve.
You can find me too frequently on Twitter, @dspfister.
