During the last fifteen years Lode was involved in numerous practice- and policy-oriented research projects. Most of his research publications are in the field of arts and cultural education, museum education, cultural theory and cultural policy, literacy (visual literacy, cultural literacy, multiliteracies, low-literacy, etc.), civil society and volunteer work.
His work is published in a range of books and journals, including the Journal of Visual Literacy and the Arts Education Policy Review. He recently published an edited volume on the role of visual literacy in art museums (Waxmann, 2019).