Dr Thomas Dixon

Thomas is a Senior Lecturer in History at Queen Mary, University of London, where he teaches nineteenth-century British history. His first degree was in Theology and Religious Studies (King's College, Cambridge). He has an MSc in the History and Philosophy of Science from Imperial College, London, and his PhD (King's College, Cambridge) was a study of the history of psychology. Following the award of his PhD Thomas interviewed prospective students for King’s College, Cambridge.

Between 2000 and 2003, Thomas held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship in Cambridge, where he was also Director of Studies for Theology at Churchill College, and from 2004 to 2007 he was a Lecturer in History and an Admissions Tutor at Lancaster University. He joined Queen Mary in September 2007.

Thomas has pursued three related strands of research in modern intellectual history: the history of theories of passions and emotions; the history of debates about ‘altruism’, especially in Victorian Britain; and, more generally, the history of relationships between science and religion (a subject on which he recently organised an international conference and has written a Very Short Introduction, which was published in 2008). He has also written a book on study skills and making the transition from school to university entitled How to Get a First (Routledge, 2004).