Bingham Award

Each Spring the Philosophy Department awards the Bingham Prize to a deserving undergraduate. This award is designed to recognize and award undergraduate excellence in Philosophy, and is awarded on the basis of a student essay written during the school year. The Philosophy Department will present the prize of $750 and a medal to the winner.

Qualifications for Submissions

• You must have taken an undergraduate philosophy course at OSU during the current school year or during spring term of the previous year.
• You must have written the essay since spring break the previous year.
• You must have your essay endorsed by a faculty member or graduate teaching associate in the Philosophy Department. For that purpose please use the following:

Download a nomination form.

Deadline for Submission: Monday, March 25, 2024 @ 12:00pm

Length: maximum page length for Bingham submissions is 20 pages
(double spaced, no smaller than 12-pt type, with reasonable margins.)

NOTE: If you are submitting a chapter from an honors thesis, please be sure to rework it as a free-standing paper.

Submission Instructions

1. Fill out the nomination form and have your faculty/TA supporter sign it (or an email endorsement sent to Michelle Brown). Have a copy of your paper emailed to Michelle Brown at brown.930@osu.edu, no later than the advertised deadline.
2. To permit a blind review, prepare an electronic manuscript of the paper, in which your name does not appear anywhere. The full title of the paper should appear at the top of the first page (i.e., there is no title page) Save this manuscript as a .doc or .pdf file. When you create the file, be sure that the author-box in the information on the file is left blank. Name the file ‘Bingham XX’, when ‘XX’ is the first two words of the title of your paper.
3. By the advertised deadline, email this manuscript to Michelle Brown at (brown.930@osu.edu).
4. In the subject line of the email message write ‘a Bingham submission’.
5. In the body of the message write:
   1. 'The title of the paper hereby submitted to the Bingham Competition: XXX', when 'XXX' is replaced by the full title that is also at the top of your manuscript, and
   2. 'Author: YYY', when 'YYY' is replaced by your name

REMEMBER TO ATTACH THE MANUSCRIPT (prepared for blind review)

Submissions received after the advertised deadline will be invalid and will not enter the competition. You will receive an acknowledgement within one business day of your submission.

A Brief History

William E. Bingham was born in England in 1884. He was compelled to terminate his formal education at the age of 14, and five years later he emigrated to Canada, where he assiduously prepared himself for enrollment in college. He studied philosophy at Ohio State University from 1914 to 1916 and upon graduation proceeded to Cornell University to pursue a graduate degree. However, in April 1917, with the threat of world war looming on the horizon, William Bingham enlisted in the United States Navy and a year later graduated from Annapolis as an ensign. In November of 1918 he married. Within a month after returning to duty he drowned when a boatload of sailors on patrol near Gibraltar capsized in heavy seas. His remains are located in the Arlington National Cemetery.

The post-war philosophy students here at Ohio State reacted to the untimely death of William Bingham first by producing a memorial issue of their yearbook, The Thinker, and then by deciding to create a memorial award to commemorate his bravery and memory. By 1921 a medal was commissioned by a famous French medalist and for a number of years this was offered as the award. In 1936 there was no medal available for the recipient, and during the Second World War the dies were lost. In 1944 an again in 1958, unsuccessful efforts were made to replace the cast. It appears that during some of this time the department awarded a picture of the medal to the winners of the prize. In addition, books were frequently awarded as well, and in 1950 an award of $25 was offered for the purchase of books. In the 1960's, a new medal was commissioned by the department, but it was not considered as attractive as the original. Finally, in 1981, the Department secured one of the original medals and had a new mold for this medal made. Current winners receive a copy of the original medal (shown below) and a cash prize of $750.00.

See the nomination form for further requirements and the submission deadline. Contact the Department for more information concerning the contest.

Note: While there have been some years in which a Bingham Medal was not awarded, we know that the following list has significant omissions. We regret these omissions and ask your assistance in correcting them. If you, or someone you know, received a Bingham Medal that is not indicated below, or if you can help us with the titles of winning papers where they are missing, please contact Michelle Brown.

[pdf] — Some links on this page are to PDF files requiring the use of Adobe Reader. If you need these files in a more accessible format, please contact brown.930@osu.edu.