Thomas Waugh was born on April 24, 1948 in London, Ontario. He graduated from the University of Western Ontario with a BA (Honours) in English Language and Literature in 1970. He then attended Columbia University School of the Arts where he subsequently completed a MFA in Film in 1974 , a M. Phil. in film in 1976 and a Ph. D in Film in 1981 (with Distinction). In 1976, he joined Concordia University as assistant professor in Film Studies. He became associate professor in 1981 and was promoted full professor in 1994. In 1989, Waugh co-taught Concordia’s first gay film and literature course with Robert K. Martin. In 1992, he was instrumental in organizing La Ville en Rose, the first Québec lesbian and gay studies conference which drew over 1,500 activists, academics and media to Montreal from around the world. Professor Waugh was also active in departmental, Faculty and University committees such as the Faculty of Fine Arts’ Permanent Review Committee on the Status of Women, and Concordia’s Task Force on Lesbian and Gay Life. In 1993, as head of the academic sub-committee of the Concordia HIV/AIDS Advisory Committee, he founded the HIV/AIDS Project. The same year, the HIV/AIDS Lecture Series was launched with contributions from leading academic thinkers, scientific experts, artists, and community leaders who have been diversely affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In the fall of 1994, the course HIV and AIDS: Cultural, Social and Scientific Aspects of the Pandemic was introduced.
In the fall of 1998, he became the Director of a newly launched minor in Interdisciplinary Studies in Sexuality, which included courses on queer cinema, lesbian issues and realities, cultural, social and scientific aspects of AIDS/HIV. From 2000 to 2001, he was Chair of the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. Between 2008 and 2015, he was Concordia Research Chair in Documentary Film and Sexual Representation. In 2015, he established the Queer Media Database Canada-Quebec Project with filmmaker Kim Simard, an online catalogue of LGBTQ films made in Canada, and the makers involved in their creation. Thomas Waugh retired from Concordia in 2017.
Apart from his teaching activities, Thomas Waugh pursues his research interests in sexual representation, documentary film and video, Canadian cinema, queer cinema, and photography. He published several articles and books on these subjects (anthologies, collections, monographs).