Dr Nick Bingham

Professional biography

After seven years studying at the Department of Geography of the University of Bristol (first as an undergraduate then as a postgraduate), I worked for two years as a research associate at the University of Sheffield before moving to the OU in 1999.

Research interests

My research consists of an attempt (or rather a series of attempts) to explore the ‘challenging geographies’ that emerge once the social is not assumed to be a solely human construction.

This longstanding interest in taking seriously the socialites and spatiaities of a more-than-human planet has entailed working with ideas from philosophical, science and technology studies (STS), and geographical literatures, and through a series of empirical cases including food safety, smart cities, the pollination crisis, and most recently lunar governance. 

My current research involves thinking through three concepts - care, habitability, and diplomacy - which are related by their concern with doing justice to the differentiated and partially connected character of the world. My interest in care is as a practice that tends the tensions of different ‘goods’ (drawing inspiration from the work of Annemarie Mol), and builds on ESRC-funded research on biosecurity published in the book Pathological Lives and elsewhere. My interest in habitability is as a way of thinking about the conditions on which different forms of life depend (drawing inspiration from the work of Bruno Latour), and builds on ongoing research on pollen as a connector of worlds. And my interest in diplomacy is as an art which works for peace between different practices and versions of the world (drawing inspiration fron the work of Isabelle Stengers), and informs research on how the Moon and its sites of interest may be safeguarded at a time of intensified exploration (as part of the interdisciplinary UKRI-funded project MoonRISE: Re‑Imagining Space Environments led my colleague Dr Alessandra Marino).

Teaching interests

I have played a key role in the production of a number of modules during my time at the OU across the various Geography and Environmental Studies qualifications. Most recently this has involved leading a block in the core second-level Geography module, Changing geographies of the United Kingdom (D225), co-chairing the third-level Geography dissertation module Researching everyday geographies (D325), and leading a block in the forthcoming second-level interfaculty Environmental Studies module Environment: Inhabiting a changing planet.