Thomas was named Andrew W. Mellon Faculty Fellow in the Humanities at Harvard University in 1991 and 1992, taking a leave from Trinity to begin research on his second book project, Detective Fiction and the Rise of Forensic Science.
[5][6] Thomas also led new enrollment partnerships with the Tacoma Public Schools[7][8] and the Posse Foundation to expand the university’s commitment to diversity, equity, and access.
"[11][12] In 2017, following his presidency, Thomas helped form Reinstitute, a group that works with campus leaders “to deepen the understanding of the fundamental challenges and transformations facing higher education and to implement mission-based action plans in response to them.”[13] Thomas also served on the governing boards of the College of Idaho[14] and Vashon Center for the Arts in Washington State.
[15] Much of Thomas’s scholarly work focuses on the role of the novel, and the interplay between fiction and reality, during the period stretching roughly from the Victorian Age through Modernity.
[26][27] The project investigates the shifting conceptions of persons in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century fiction in relation to the invention of cinema.