Thomas has taught art history and theory in universities for roughly ten years in both art school and art history department settings; at University College London, the Courtauld Institute and University of Kent.

He teaches and is interested in understanding how images code social and cultural understandings, and how these codes frame how things, especially people, appear. He likes to teach with a range of examples from art history and contemporary art but his specialism is in modern art in the US.

Tom produced a book in 2017 about Andy Warhol and sculpture and regularly writes for journals and magazines.