Rate My Professor Tom Grimwood

Professor Tom Grimwood is Professor of Social Philosophy in the Institute of Health at the University of Cumbria. He holds a PhD in Philosophy and Cultural Theory. Grimwood joined the University of Cumbria in 2012 as a senior lecturer, where he took over the running of the MA Social Work programme and taught on courses covering theory, culture, social philosophy, and research methods. Prior to this appointment, he taught at Lancaster University and the Open University across subjects including philosophy, religion, the arts, and social sciences. Currently, he serves as Head of the Graduate School, Lead of the Health and Society Knowledge Exchange (HASKE), which delivers commissioned research for organisations and agencies in health and social care, and theme lead for Applied Social Science Research in the Centre for Research in Health and Society (CRiHS). Since 2016, he has co-led HASKE, focusing on intellectually robust, practice-relevant research.

Grimwood's research interests are rooted in philosophy and critical theory, spanning disciplinary areas such as rhetoric, literary theory, aesthetics, and religious studies. He explores philosophical and political issues in social work, social care, and health; cultural and philosophical hermeneutics; critical and post-critical theory; rhetoric and its contemporary applications, particularly in visual and gaming culture; social and applied ethics; philosophy of research methodologies, especially evaluation; and gender and feminist philosophy. His work examines dialogues between current social, material, and rhetorical practices in health and social care and philosophical resources. Key publications include the books Against Critical Thinking in Health, Social Care and Social Work: Reframing Philosophy for Professional Practice (Routledge, 2023), The Problem with Stupid: Ignorance, Intellectuals, Post-Truth and Resistance (Zer0 Books, 2023), The Shock of the Same: An Anti-Philosophy of Clichés (Rowman and Littlefield International, 2021), Key Debates in Social Work and Philosophy (Routledge, 2016), and Irony, Misogyny and Interpretation (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2012). Selected articles feature 'Post-critical Social Work?' (Social Work and Society, 2023), 'The Poetics of Rumour and the Age of Post-Truth' (Janus Head, 2022), 'The Rhetoric of Urgency and Theory-Practice Tensions' (European Journal of Social Work, 2020), 'The Politics of Irony, Reconsidered' (Journal for Cultural Research, 2021), and 'Procedural Monsters: Rhetoric, Commonplace and “Heroic Madness” in Video Games' (Journal for Cultural Research, 2018).