Dr Phil Crockett Thomas

‘It is a strange realism, but it is a strange reality.’ – Ursula Le Guin.

I am a sociologist and writer of fiction and poetry. These practices are not so distinct as they may at first seem, as all involve curiosity, research, observation, and imagination.

Currently I am researching and writing about responses to social harm, imagined futures, utopia, and cultural representations of justice issues. I am strongly influenced by feminist, abolitionist, and post-structuralist thought, and think of theory and practice as entangled and mutually enriching. Some of the questions I am currently exploring in my research and teaching are:

How can reading and writing fiction help us imagine and enact more just futures?

How can we do research with participants that is more collaborative and less extractive?

How do cultural representations shape, express, or challenge our complex feelings about crime and justice?

I am passionate about developing collaborative and creative research methods to work with people on the issues that affect them, and then bringing this collective knowledge to a wider public. Open access versions of my publications are available at https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=4407593. My most recent research projects both centre on ‘collaborative fictioning’: supporting groups with a common interest or problem to read and write fiction together, as a way of gaining a different perspective and galvanising action. In my ISRF Independent Scholar Fellowship project Prison Break (2021-22) I supported activists and scholars involved in prison abolition and transformative justice in the UK to write science fiction imagining more just futures. We created a learning resource called Abolition Science Fiction (2022) You can find a free e-book and audio-book on the project website: https://abolitionscifi.org. In my new project Crafting the Future (2023-24) with Dr Hee Jung Hong, we are exploring how creative writing might help athletes and former-athletes navigate the often difficult transition away from a high-performance sports career. I am currently editing a collection of our writing called Beyond the Game (2024), which will be available for free at https://beyondthegame.stir.ac.uk/. My own fiction and poetry has been performed on BBC Radio 4, and published by Granta and Ambit among other others. You can read more about this work on my website: https://crowdedmouth.com.

I joined the University of Stirling as a Lecturer in Criminology in 2022 and co-convene a year-one undergraduate module SPCU901: Applying a Sociological Lens. I am currently developing a new undergraduate honours module called CRMU9CC Cultural and Creative Criminology which will launch in Spring 2025. I was delighted to be shortlisted for a 2024 RATE award for Teacher of the Year.

I have taken a circuitous route to get to where I am now, via an undergraduate degree in dance, lots of different jobs, an MA in postcolonial theory, a PhD in visual sociology, lecturing dance students about cultural studies and filmmaking, and undertaking research in Scottish prisons. I have learned a lot from all these different experiences. I strive to meet students ‘where they are’ and not to forget where I’ve been.

I have supervised an ESRC Open Collaborative PhD studentship entitled ‘Collaborative Art and Transformation: an exploration of the National Galleries of Scotland outreach programme for disadvantaged young people’ (Rosie Priest). I am interested in supervising doctoral projects involving: alternatives to punishment; prison abolition and transformative justice; arts or cultural representations of crime, harm, and punishment; creative and collaborative methods; feminist theory and methods; poststructuralist and new materialist philosophy; science and technology studies.

Sociology of crime and punishment; prisons; alternatives to punishment; prison abolition and transformative justice; arts or cultural representations of crime, harm, and punishment; poststructuralist philosophy; science and technology studies; feminist theory and methods; collaborative and creative research methods.

I co-convene a year-one undergraduate module SPCU901: Applying a Sociological Lens. I am currently developing a new undergraduate honours module called CRMU9CC Cultural and Creative Criminology which will launch in Spring 2025. I contribute to undergraduate and postgraduate modules for sociology and criminology. I was delighted to be shortlisted for a 2024 RATE award for Teacher of the Year.