Tom Crook

Dr Tom Crook is a Senior Lecturer and Programme Lead in History at Oxford Brookes University's School of Education, Humanities and Languages. He specializes in modern British history, focusing on governance, public health systems, and political corruption. His doctoral training at the University of Manchester (PhD 2005) laid the groundwork for his research on institutional systems and their impact on modernity. He has supervised numerous PhD students, including Dr Mike Esbester and Dr Stefan Fisher-Høyrem, on topics ranging from safety culture to Victorian time perception.

His research explores systemic approaches to public health governance (e.g., Governing Systems: Modernity and the Making of Public Health in England, 1830–1910), corruption in British public life, and ecological histories of welfare. He regularly publishes in top journals like Journal of British Studies and Past & Present, and organizes conferences on political history themes.

Teaching includes modules on ideologies of the West, risk society analysis, and Victorian governance. He is active in public engagement, co-creating performance pieces like the Bonhoeffer-Eichmann narrative, and serves as Postgraduate Research Tutor for his school.