Dustin Edwards is an Associate Professor of Rhetoric and Writing Studies and the Director of the Writing Center at San Diego State University. His research examines the unmet promises and lived harms of extractive technologies. More specifically, his work draws together how communities navigate the land, labor, and water struggles that have made large-scale computation and global connectivity possible. He is author of Enduring Digital Damage: Rhetorical Reckonings for Planetary Survival, which won the 2025-26 Computers and Composition Johndan Johnson-Eilola Distinguished Book Award. With Mél Hogan and Zane Cooper, he is at work on a second book, tentatively titled Critical Data Center Studies.
In his book Enduring Digital Damage, Dr. Edwards uses digital material rhetoric as an approach to address the ever-growing demands on digital infrastructures, which have led to increased extraction of environmental resources essential to human sustainability. Although Dr. Edwards addresses the adverse effects of the accelerated growth of digital technologies, he prioritizes narratives that center the communities directly affected. He prioritizes storytelling as a key approach to staying with the problem of digital damage as he moves beyond digital tools and even internet infrastructure to account for the overlooked material resources that are deeply affected by digital consumption all across the globe.
This interview focuses on the popular narratives surrounding the growth of AI infrastructure. It accounts for the rationale behind the perceived inevitability of AI, particularly narratives surrounding its ability to replace and create jobs by questioning the capitalist incentives behind these narratives. The interview champions the need for counter-narratives, particularly those emerging within coalition groups, some of which Dr. Edwards is interviewing for a new project.
Works Cited
Cushman, Ellen. “The Rhetorician as an Agent of Social Change.” College Composition and Communication, vol. 47, no. 1, 1996, pp. 7-28.
Edwards, Dustin. Enduring Digital Damage: Rhetorical Reckonings for Planetary Survival. University of Alabama Press, 2025.
Hao, Karen. Empire of AI: Dreams and Nightmares in Sam Altman’s OpenAI. Penguin Press, 2025.
Miller, Erin, and Funmilola Fadairo. “The Rhetorical Power of Data Centers: Case Studies from the Global North and Global South.” Digital Rhetoric Collaborative, 12 Mar. 2026, https://www.digitalrhetoriccollaborative.org/2026/03/12/the-rhetorical-power-of-data-centers-case-studies-from-the-global-north-and-global-south/.
