Staff profile

Biography & Research

I have a BA in American & Postcolonial Studies from the University of Exeter, an MA in Critical Theory from the University of Sussex, and a PhD from the same institution (where I was also employed as a tutor for a number of years).

I work on contemporary US literature, film, television, and music.

I am an established expert, in particular, on the novelist Thomas Pynchon. My engagement with Pynchon's work is career-spanning and ongoing — from my first book, Pynchon and the Political (2007), which examines the complex relationship between political commitment and postmodern play, to long articles that analyse Pynchon's treatment of literatures and histories outside of the US, for example, and his remarkable immersion in various forms of pop culture.

Beyond Pynchon, my interdisciplinary research is primarily focussed on questions of genre and explores areas such as the creative and military-industrial contexts of the Star Wars franchise, heavy metal and experimental music, and representations of political violence. 

Much of my most current work-in-progress is collaborative and includes two co-edited collections (on the television show Andor and the alternative rock/metal band Faith No More) as well as a community-driven Star Wars "memory bank" project.

I am a founding member of Durham's Centre for Modern Conflicts and Cultures.

Teaching, Supervision & Other Roles

My lecturing is usually concentrated on the American Fiction (L3), Postwar Fiction & Poetry (L3), American Poetry (L2), and Postcolonial & World Literatures (L2) modules. 

The specialist, research-led seminar modules I have introduced to the curriculum include 'Fictions of Terrorism,' which ran for more than a decade, and 'Contemporary US Fiction & the Question of Genre'. As of 26/27, I am launching a final year option called 'Star Wars Stories: Inventing & Consuming Popular Culture', which uses the nine films of the Skywalker saga as a way into film history and theory. My MA track record includes an interdisciplinary class on US crime narratives and a single-author module devoted to Pynchon. I also helped to redesign the Department's final year Dissertation module and convened between 2015-2020.

In 2017, I won the DSU’s annual award for ‘Outstanding Academic in the Arts and Humanities’, for which I am very grateful.

I am an experienced PhD supervisor. Previous research students have completed various Pynchon-related projects and I have also supervised doctorates on subjects such as post 9/11 genre cinema, conflict in the musico-literary novel, agriculture and the American Gothic, torture in the contemporary novel, and crime fiction and ecology. 

From 2010 to 2017, I was the international co-ordinator for English Studies. I designed and launched our first degree programme to include a full year abroad during this time.

In 22/23, I was the Department's research grants officer. 

• Thomas Pynchon
• Star Wars
• Contemporary Film & TV
• Heavy Metal and Experimental Music
• Political Violence
• Genre

Authored book

• Pynchon and the Political
  
  Thomas, S. (2007). Pynchon and the Political. Routledge.

Book review

• Review of Reaganism, Thatcherism and the Social Novel by Colin Hutchinson.
  
  Thomas, S. (2011). Review of Reaganism, Thatcherism and the Social Novel by Colin Hutchinson. Modern Language Review, 106(1), 253-254.
• Local and Global Antagonisms: Three Approaches to the Contemporary Novel.
  
  Thomas, S. (2007). Local and Global Antagonisms: Three Approaches to the Contemporary Novel. Textual Practice, 21(4), 181-191. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502360701642565

Chapter in book

• The Devil's Party: Metal and Literature
  
  Thomas, S. (in press). The Devil’s Party: Metal and Literature. In R. Durkin, P. Dayan, A. Englund, & K. Clausius (Eds.), The Routledge Companion to Music and Modern Literature (pp. 406-415). Routledge.

Edited book

• New Literary Television
  
  Keeble, A., & Thomas, S. (Eds.). (2021). New Literary Television. [Special Issue: Post45].

Journal Article

• Lines of Flight, Lines of Force: Thomas Pynchon & Star Wars
  
  Thomas, S. (2025). Lines of Flight, Lines of Force: Thomas Pynchon & Star Wars. Studies in American Fiction, 52(1), 41-71.
• Blood on the Tracks: Pynchon, Bleeding Edge, and (Un)popular Music from Britney to Black Metal
  
  Thomas, S. (2019). Blood on the Tracks: Pynchon, Bleeding Edge, and (Un)popular Music from Britney to Black Metal. Orbit: A Journal of American Literature, 7(1), 1-55. https://doi.org/10.16995/orbit.788
• Yours in Revolution: Retrofitting Carlos the Jackal
  
  Thomas, S. (2013). Yours in Revolution: Retrofitting Carlos the Jackal. Culture Unbound, 5, 451-478. https://doi.org/10.3384/cu.2000.1525.135451
• The Gaucho Sells Out: Thomas Pynchon and Argentina
  
  Thomas, S. (2013). The Gaucho Sells Out: Thomas Pynchon and Argentina. Studies in American Fiction, 40(1), 53-85. https://doi.org/10.1353/saf.2013.0003
• Outtakes and Outrage: The Means and Ends of Suicide Terror
  
  Thomas, S. (2011). Outtakes and Outrage: The Means and Ends of Suicide Terror. MFS: Modern Fiction Studies, 57(3), 425-449. https://doi.org/10.1353/mfs.2011.0062
• Metković to Mostar: Pynchon and the Balkans
  
  Thomas, S. (2010). Metković to Mostar: Pynchon and the Balkans. Textual Practice, 24(2), 353-377. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502360903422758

Newspaper/Magazine Article

• Review of Slavoj Žižek's In Defense of Lost Causes.
  
  Thomas, S. (2008, July). Review of Slavoj Žižek’s In Defense of Lost Causes. Times Higher Education.