Personal Update

Over the past year or so, I have been working on completing a previously published PhD, which ended on December 1st when I graduated at the Stadium of Light. The published work route is something offered by the University that allows academics who have already published a reasonable volume of work or others with creative/artistic work to collate their outputs into a PhD; thus completing the programme in a far shorter period as the work has already been completed. The process is not without rigour, as it also requires a contextual narrative and a viva.

The articles span a period from my first foray into podcasting in 2006 to more recent work published in 2022, a total of about 70,000 words. Although it did appear that more was better at the start of the process, once accepted and the process began, it became clear that a more focused approach gave it coherence. I found the commentary writing process a mixture of enjoyment, frustration, and desperation as I tried to find common threads, address potential gaps in the work, and give a sense that the work meets the standards of peer review and a PhD. This was no easy task, but as I say, it was fruitful in the end. I could have written more because I began to see new lines of inquiry.

So, the box is ticked. I will end by thanking my supervisor, Caroline Mitchell, and my rigorous examiners, John Price, Siobhan McHugh, and Tim Crook.

PS: I should explain the shirt behind me. The University of Sunderland holds graduations at the SAFC stadium. The number 9 shirt was worn famously by the Irish international Niall Quinn, after whom one of the bars has been named.