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Dr. Bingham Faculty Spotlight Q&A

Dr. Bingham

Dr. Shawn Bingham is a permanent faculty member in the Honors College and enjoys teaching a course in Consumer Culture. He is currently working on a book about the tiny housing movement and considers himself a sociologist of culture; leading him on research explorations in stand-up comedy and disability studies. Check out the question-and-answer below to learn more about Dr. Bingham.

1) What is your educational/research background?
I changed my major so many times during my undergraduate education that I took a broad general degree in social sciences (B.A.). Then I made my way to the College of Education for graduate school and eventually ended up in a doctoral program in sociology. My research has covered everything from healthcare to comedy, with books on Henry David Thoreau, political art, bohemia, and humor.

2) What is your favorite area of study/research?
I don't usually focus on one specific area for more than a few years. Broadly, I am a sociologist of culture, but that has led to explorations of stand-up comedy, disability studies, and even the tiny housing movement. I am currently working on a book about the tiny housing movement in the United States. It will use tiny housing as a lens to examine "the American Dream," housing policy, economics, and even meaning and purpose. I suppose I am most fascinated with elements of culture that seem to be in conflict with each other – I did a book on comedians with disabilities, another on bohemia in the American South, and am now focusing on the tiny housing movement, which, ironically, can now be seen on HGTV with embedded ads for all of the fancy things one needs to buy to be a "minimalist."

3) How many years have you been working in the Honors College?
I began teaching in the College in 2009 while I was a faculty member in the sociology department. My neighbor at the time was a long-time advisor in the Honors College. I began the appointment as the Assistant Dean in 2015.

4) What are all of the classes you teach in the Honors College?
I have the dream job of recruiting faculty from across campus and the community to teach in the Honors College. So, I have a hand in creating the list of course offerings each semester. That does not leave as much time as I would like to teach my own courses. However, when I do teach, I do a course on Consumer Culture. We examine the supposed relationship between standard of living and quality of life, impulse buying, emotional branding, status, shopping for meaning, debt culture and even the commodification of education.

5) What is your favorite class that you teach at the Honors College?
I really enjoy the Consumer Culture course, but I'm also interested in rolling out a course (with Dr. Ben Young) on minimalism. I also want to return to teaching about humor, which is often not taken seriously, but is an important form of social glue, protest, coping, and even pedagogy.

6) What is one lesson you want all of your students to take away from studying your course?
Whether I am teaching about humor or consumer culture, I want students to leave with an understanding of how efficiency, standardization and more McDonald-ized approaches to anything – education, careers, dating, family relationships – robs their lives of very rich meaning and deep experiences. These things go unquestioned, because shopping is seen as "American" or even therapy, but it is too easy to say that this product or this thing will make me happy.

Overall, I want students to leave the College with a more interdisciplinary perspective. You can't navigate personal relationships using only the toolkit of engineering. Likewise, you can't begin to address public health issues without an understanding of culture and even psychology. Our best students are the ones who are working across disciplines to creatively address whatever challenges they face.

7) What makes Honors students unique?
Tough to generalize, precisely because they are so uniquely individual! Here are two anecdotes: 1) Sitting at the Honors graduation ceremony and hearing the thesis titles, I am always impressed with the science student who has composed music, or art student who did a photographic essay of patient experiences, or the engineering student who devised a new way to make a marimba. It is not simply curiosity, but a willingness to jump into new territory bringing previous knowledge and to go on a journey to create something new. 2) Last year, during the Honors College trip to Asheville with incoming first year students, Dr. Gordon and I were struggling with the book binding project we were all doing as a group. The inside of our books included a very complicated series of folds that required a keen ability to envision the folds in your head before doing them. One of our students, barely 18, walked over and said, "try this." Within 12 seconds he had completed all of the folds. Dr. Gordon and I sheepishly looked at each other. It sounds trite, but it was clear that this student was ready to go on the journey with us, rather than following us in the traditional student-teacher approach.

8) What activities do you like to do for fun when you're not teaching in the Honors College?
I have a very active family at home – two daughters who are seven and 11 and a spouse who is very tolerant of puns. (We have also recently added a puppy, since we had so much free time.) I have been learning finger-style guitar picking, though that is slow going. If I had more free time, I'd delve into woodworking. I did a stint with a luthier when I was in graduate school and really enjoyed the process of making instruments. But, I was much better at writing papers than making fretboards.

9) Are there any other insights about you that you would like to add?
There are so many exciting things ahead for the Honors College – new faculty, facilities, a medical humanities pathway, new courses and collaborations. We are always trying to make the Honors experience more meaningful for students. If you have found a faculty member whom you want to recommend, or you have an idea for a class, or if you want to discuss something that is not going well, stop by my office. If my door is open, I definitely want to speak with you.