Born in the UK, Tom completed his BA (hons) in philosophy at University College London, followed by a MA in music composition at Birmingham Conservatoire, and then a PhD in philosophy at the University of Nottingham. His PhD supervisor was Gregory Currie.

Following his PhD, Tom was a postdoctoral fellow at the Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva (2007-2010). He was then an international visiting fellow at the Sonic Arts Research Center, Queen's University Belfast (2010-2012), before moving to the University of Sheffield as a lecturer (2012-2017). After a brief stint at the University of York in 2017, he joined Flinders in February 2018.

Tom's main areas of expertise are the philosophy of emotions and related issues in psychology, extended and collective cognition, and aesthetics (particularly music). He also has interests in metaphysics, ethics, and political philosophy.

He is the editor of The Emotional Power of Music (Oxford University Press, 2013) and the author of The Emotional Mind: A control theory of affective states (Cambridge University Press, 2019).