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Stories
LBU Research Voices at Graduation – Fulfilling my PhD dreams in my 50s
Stories
Hi Karl, can you tell us a little about your PhD and what motivated you to begin the journey?
My PhD is all about virtual reality and interactive storytelling. It’s something I’ve been interested in and obsessed with my whole life - from being a kid reading science fiction stories about cyberspace under the bedclothes, to being an adult creating narratives for a living.
My first Master’s degree looked at a similar subject matter, and the PhD refines and expands on ideas I’ve been working on for 35 years. It is entirely fair to say that it is my life’s work.
I came from a working-class family background and I was the first person in my family to go to university, so my ambitions seemed quite odd to my parents. Nevertheless, they’ve been nothing but supportive.
What made you take on a doctorate alongside an established academic career, and what helped sustain you through the journey?
I know some people do PhDs to advance within their academic careers. I have wanted to do my PhD since I was 18 years old, since before I’d even finished my degree! What kept me going was that this was my first and final opportunity to do that, even though there were obstacles along the way.
L-r: Karl and his brothers Jason and Julian, sitting outside the two-up, two down terrace house they grew up in.
Looking back, what moments in the journey feel most significant to you now?
There are a number of frameworks and approaches that I developed during the process. Each of these moments was a bit like solving a puzzle in an escape room! They unlocked the next bit of the process and helped me make sense of things I was already doing.What challenges did you encounter balancing a PhD with work and life, and how did you navigate them?
The main challenge for me was that I had no road map for what I wanted to do, no network, no role models. People with family members who have followed the same route know what to do, and what a PhD means. I had no clue. My Mum worked in retail and bar management, and my Dad had been a high school teacher and technician.
I still didn’t find out what academia thinks a PhD is for until I was nearly at the end of it. In a progression meeting I was once asked why I was doing it - because I already had a job as a lecturer. My honest reply was because I wanted to. I wanted to look at this subject matter in the detail that a PhD allows.
I now have this body of work I want to share - and that’s my next step.
Karl at the Meet the Media event that the School arranges every year for undergraduate journalism students.
How have your teaching and research influenced one another over the course of the doctorate, and what has that brought to your work with students?
What I teach is mostly practical. I teach students how to make digital journalism. However, I have begun to use some of the research to create interactive teaching materials. For example, branching scenarios to support students who are learning how to interview people for stories.As you prepare to graduate, what would you say to someone who is considering a PhD but isn’t quite sure whether to take the first step?
Most importantly, it is your PhD. Make sure that what you study is something you can live with every day. A good supervisor will support your growth and help you find your way, not make the work their own.LBU Research Voices is a blog series that celebrates the experiences, journeys, and expertise of our LBU research community. Through this series, we explore the knowledge our researchers have gained, not just from their work, but from their lived experiences, career paths, and the communities they engage with. By sharing their stories, we hope to inspire learning, reflection, and connection across our LBU research culture.
Explore the full LBU Research Voices series to read more stories from across our LBU research community.
Karl Hodge
Karl Hodge is a journalist and the Course Director for Undergraduate Journalism at Leeds Beckett University, An early adopter of the web, VR and AI for digital publishing and an expert in creative technologies, he has been charting the rise and fall and rise of the web and emerging tech for four decades.
