Dr. Thomas Byrne

Biography

Thomas Byrne is a Research Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois and the Head of the Laboratory for Phenomenological Research. He completed his PhD at KU Leuven’s Husserl Archives under the supervision of Ullrich Melle. Byrne has held research appointments at KU Leuven, the University of Macau, and a tenured position at Sun Yat-Sen University before joining Illinois in 2023. His work in classical phenomenology examines concepts such as meaning, feelings, attention, and signs, with publications in journals like the European Journal of Philosophy, Human Studies, Phenomenology and Cognitive Sciences, and Husserl Studies. He has also translated works from German to Turkish, reflecting his commitment to international scholarship. Byrne is currently developing the Laboratory for Phenomenological Research, which supports concept-driven qualitative studies that incorporate phenomenology to reduce technical procedures. His published qualitative health research appears in journals including Qualitative Health Research, Qualitative Inquiry, Studies in Higher Education, and The Qualitative Report, addressing how lived experiences shape illness and institutional authority in contemporary social life. His current projects examine themes such as mortality in cancer care, objectification in clinical encounters, conflicts in doctoral education, treatment refusal in oncology, and the experiences of AI systems in everyday contexts.

Research Interests

Experience