Prospective Students
Dr. Shawn Bingham
Read Dr. Bingham's full bio below and click here for a special faculty spotlight Q&A.
Dr. Shawn Bingham serves as the Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs and has been teaching
in the Honors College since 2009. In his current role, he oversees the curriculum,
course offerings and hiring of all faculty within the College. (Please stop in and
let him know if you would like to recommend faculty from across campus to teach in
the Honors College). Dr. Bingham regularly develops and leads co-curricular trips
to such locations as St. Augustine, Savannah, and Asheville, as well as local museums
and theaters. As a Faculty-in-Residence from 2009 to 2014, he and his family lived
in Beta and Juniper-Poplar Halls, where they regularly hosted co-curricular events,
including an international film series.
A Tampa native, Dr. Bingham completed undergraduate studies at Flagler College and
then graduate programs at the University of Maryland and American University in Washington,
D.C. While living in the D.C. area, he served as a Research Fellow at the Center for
Health and Disability Research. He has published books on Henry David Thoreau (Rowman
and Littlefield, 2008) political art (Lexington, 2012), disability and humor (Lynn
Reinner Press, 2016) and the bohemian South (University of North Carolina Press, 2017).
His work has also appeared in the journals Disability and Rehabilitation, Managed Care Quarterly, Humanity and Society and Teaching Sociology.
Dr. Bingham's research area and teaching interests overlap through the concept of
culture: he has completed a book on humor as a form of social action, and likewise
teaches a course on the social functions of humor in everyday life, which includes
such settings as medicine, education, workplaces and even advertising. He is particularly
interested in the ways in which humor can illuminate incongruities in everyday life,
especially through irony and satire. Within the Honors College, Dr. Bingham regularly
teaches a course on consumer culture. In this course students reflect on their own
patterns of consumption, examine the marketing of rebellion and analyze stories about
the relationships between quality of life and standards of living.
Dr. Bingham is also currently an Assistant Professor in the Sociology department.
Contact Dr. Shawn Bingham.