Tom Tyler

Tom Tyler

Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Culture

Department of History, Philosophy and Religion - Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences

Role details

Contact details

Oxford Brookes University, Harcourt Hill Campus, Oxford OX2 9AT
Email: ttyler@brookes.ac.uk

Background

Tom graduated in Philosophy and History from Birmingham University before completing an MA and PhD in Cultural Studies at Leeds University. He has taught at Wolverhampton University, Derby University, the University College of Ripon & York St John, and at Leeds Metropolitan University. Tom joined Oxford Brookes University in 2004.

Research activities

Details of my research

My research concerns pre- and post-humanist modes of thought, and pursues those philosophies and means of enquiry that resist anthropocentric appropriation. To date my interests have manifested in three related domains:

(1) Animals. I am interested in the ambiguous roles that non-human animals have been required to play, frequently unacknowledged, in the texts of philosophy and critical theory. From Buridan's ass to Schopenhauer's porcupines, from Austin's pigs to Derrida's cat, we find a mischievous menagerie of animals pressed into service, or suppressed by the notion of an amorphous 'animality'. I have discussed medieval bestiaries and monstrous manuscripts which, prior to Enlightened times, were inhabited by instructive animals and fabulous races. I am especially interested in apes, ancient and modern, and have written on the taxonomy of the chimpanzee, to which genus Homo sapiens truly belongs.

(2) Anthropocentrism. I am interested in the variety of anthropocentric assumptions that permeate, but are rarely intrinsic to, a wide range of philosophies, from Kant's critical idealism to Moore's common sense realism, from Whorf's linguistic relativism to Heidegger's hyperhumanism. My work has traced the relations and disparities between a number of these anthropocentric starting-points and the philosophical systems into which they are imported. In so doing, I have drawn in particular on the affirmative perspectivism of Nietzsche, the therapeutic pragmatism of Wittgenstein, the historical methodology of Foucault, and the counter-teleological insights of evolutionary theory, old and new.

(3) Games. I am interested in the media ecology of digital games, which is to say their impact on, and integration into, the social, psychological, and cultural environment. Irrespective of the content or subject matter of individual games, the technologies on which they depend engender significant personal and perceptual changes. From Sid Meier’s Civilization to the ‘Smellovision’ of Dog’s Life, from dedicated consoles and computers to mobile phones and handheld devices, digital games require of their players new modes of engagement and participation. McLuhan’s prescient, provocative probes into the operation and effects of new technologies have provided a fruitful means of investigation.

Tyler, Tom (2003). If Horses Had Hands.... Society & Animals 11.3, pp. 267-281; reprinted in Tom Tyler and Manuela Rossini, eds, Animal Encounters, Leiden: Brill, 2009, pp. 13-26.
Tyler, Tom (2005). Like Water in Water. Journal for Cultural Research 9.3 (July), pp. 265-279.
Tyler, Tom, ed. (2006). Parallax 38, 12.1 ('Animal Beings'), London: Routledge.
Tyler, Tom (2006). Four Hands Good, Two Hands Bad. Parallax 38, 12.1 (Jan-Mar), pp. 69-80; reprinted in Marc Lucht and Donna Yarri, eds, Kafka's Creatures: Animals, Hybrids, and Other Fantastic Beings, Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2010, pp. 175-89.
Adams, Carol J. with Tom Tyler (2006). An Animal Manifesto: Gender, Identity, and Vegan-Feminism in the Twenty-First Century. Parallax 38, 12.1 (Jan-Mar), pp. 120-28.
Tyler, Tom (2007). Quia Ego Nominor Leo: Barthes, Stereotypes and Aesop's Animals. Mosaic 40:1 (March, 'The Animal, Part II'), pp. 45-59.
Tyler, Tom (2007). Review of The Animals Reader, by Linda Kalof and Amy Fitzgerald. Frieze 108 (Jun-Aug 2007), p. 50.
Tyler, Tom (2008). The Quiescent Ass and the Dumbstruck Wolf. Configurations 14.1-2 (Winter-Spring 2006; published Summer 2008), pp. 9-28.
Tyler, Tom & Rossini, Manuela, eds (2009). Animal Encounters. Leiden: Brill.
Tyler, Tom (2009). The Test of Time: McLuhan, Space and the Rise of Civilization. In: Sid Dobrin and Sean Morey, eds, Ecosee: Image, Rhetoric, and Nature. New York: SUNY, pp. 257-77.
Tyler, Tom (2010). The Rule of Thumb. JAC 30.3-4 (2010), pp. 711-32.
Tyler, Tom (2012). CIFERAE: A Bestiary in Five Fingers. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.
 

Presentations

Tyler, Tom (2005). Innovate or Perish: Addressing Educational Crises with New Technologies (Спасение через усовершенствование: роль новых технологий в предотвращении кризиса в образовательных учреждениях). Masterclass presentation at Crisis Communication: Solving Conflicts through Discourse, Nizhny Novgorod Commercial Institute, Russia, 23-25 November 2005.
Tyler, Tom (2006). Deviants, Donestre and Debauchees: Here Be Monsters (Девианты, донестры и развращенные (ученостью): где обитают монстры). Keynote address at Deviation and Delinquent Behavior: Social Control, Nizhny Novgorod State University, Russia, 21-22 April 2006.
Tyler, Tom (2006). Of Cipherous Swine and Misanthropic Porcupine. Close Encounters 4th European SLSA Biannual Conference, University of Amsterdam, 13-16 June 2006.
Tyler, Tom (2007). The Fox and the Fabulist: Aesop's Emblematic Animals. Invited lecture for the Human Culture, Non-human World series. Middlesex University, UK, 15 March 2007.
Tyler, Tom (2007). Monstrous Mixture: The Archaeology of Teratology. 42nd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI, 10-13 May 2007.
Tyler, Tom (2007). New Tricks. Animals and Society Institute Summer Fellowship, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, 26 June-31 July 2007.
Tyler, Tom (2007). Play: A Procrustean Probe. Digital Games Research Association International Conference 2007: Situated Play, University of Tokyo, Japan, 24-28 September 2007.
Tyler, Tom (2009). Canine Visions. Invited lecture for the British Animal Studies Network series, London, UK, 21 February 2009.
Tyler, Tom (2009). A Stroll Through the World of a Digital Dog. Invited lecture at Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, 7 April 2009.
Tyler, Tom (2009). How Does Your Dog Smell? Keynote address at Animals: Past, Present and Future, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI, 16-18 April 2009.
Tyler, Tom (2009). Wagging the Dog. Becoming Human: Ethics, Animality, Transhumanism colloquium, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool, UK, 24 April 2009.
Tyler, Tom (2010). The Rule of Thumb. Animals and Society Institute Summer Fellowship, Clark University, Worcester, MA, 24 May-1 July 2010.
Tyler, Tom (2010). Monstrosity, Medieval and Modern. Keynote address at Hybrids, Monsters, Aliens and Other Creatures in 20th and 21st Century Writing, Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, London, 9-11 September 2010.
Tyler, Tom (2011). Monstrous Races and Strange Cases: The Ill-Fated Hybrid. Keynote address at Animals, Animality and the Limits of the Human, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, 5-7 May, 2011.
Tyler, Tom (2011). Becoming What We Are. Plenary address at Reconfiguring the Human/Animal Binary: Resisting Violence. 2nd European Conference for Critical Animal Studies, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, 15-16 Oct, 2011.

 

Funding, Awards and Fellowships

Leeds University Research Scholarship, University of Leeds, UK, 2000-03
David R. Tashjian Travel Award, Western Michigan University, USA, May 2007
Animals and Society Institute Summer Fellowship, North Carolina State University, USA, July 2007
Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation Award, University of Tokyo, Japan, September 2007
University Research Sabbatical Scheme, Oxford Brookes University, UK, September 2009
Animals and Society Institute Summer Fellowship peer scholar, Clark University, USA, June 2010
Undergraduate Research Scholarship Scheme supervisor, Oxford Brookes University, UK, December 2010
Faculty Research Funding, teaching relief, Oxford Brookes University, UK, October 2011

Websites

Tom Tyler's Research, abstracts and essays
Manuel DeLanda Annotated Bibliography, Virginia Polytechnic and State Institute
Understanding Media, Oxford Brookes University
Playing the Game, Oxford Brookes University
Design for Online Communication, Oxford Brookes University
Subject to Culture, Oxford Brookes University

Teaching activities

U75102 Understanding Media. The mass media are of profound importance to all of us living in today's instantaneous, globally-connected, advertising-saturated societies. But what are the media? And how do they affect us? This module introduces participants to key concepts and concerns in the study of the media. Analysing a wide range of contemporary examples we explore the ways in which the media are used for communication, consumption and control: from Derren Brown to Sex in the City, from The Times to The Matrix, we utilise a range of theories and probes to help us understand the impact and significance of the media.
U75105 Playing the Game (2005-2007). Digital games have come a long way since their emergence in the 1960s. Today's games are complex, multi-million pound creations providing sophisticated forms of interactive entertainment, education and professional training, medical therapy and healthcare, political and military simulation, and more. This module examines the unique pleasures and pains of digital gaming: we investigate how players become immersed and involved, and how they use and abuse games; we explore game design and development, the gendered nature of play, and the moral panics that have surrounded this new medium; and we consider the future potential of digital game culture.
U75131 Design for Online Communication. Designing a successful website requires specialist skills and knowledge. At its best, effective online communication combines theory, technical knowledge and creativity. This module considers issues of design, layout, usability and accessibility in the construction of contemporary websites, and examines what it takes to produce a site that is fit for purpose. Particants are introduced to the fundamental practical elements of webdesign, including HTML and CSS, and create a website of their own design using Dreamweaver and Photoshop. No prior experience of webdesign is required.
U75184 Subject to Culture. Everyone likes to think that they are unique, with their own personality and identity, their own beliefs and ideas, their own distinct sense of self. But are we really all so different, or are we subject to a variety of cultural and social pressures that determine who we are? Using a range of objects and artefacts chosen by participants this double honours module provides students with new and challenging ways of thinking about their place within culture, and about how culture places itself within individuals. From masks to mind-viruses, from plagues to prisons, from cyborgs to subversive sexualities, we investigate how we are all subject to culture.

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