This site brings together my work as an expertise researcher and media professional. I also share experiences and insights that underpin much of this work: writing on biking, stories from life.
Connecting these threads is a longstanding interest in the relationship between thinking and doing. How does what we do affect how we think? How do the ways we think shape what we do and experience? What do the connections between thinking and doing mean for you?
I bring a range of attributes to a diverse number of projects. I have the analytical and research abilities of a humanities scholar. The joy for life of a mountain biker. The communication skills of a teacher. The articulate expression of a writer. The creative eye of an original thinker.
My research training gives journalism work an edge. Writing for a general audience keeps academic outputs relevant and fresh.
Please get in touch about future projects or collaborations.
Featured news
Out in February 2022!
This book is about joint intelligence in action. It brings together cutting-edge scholarship in performance studies, cognitive science, sociology, literature, anthropology, psychology, architecture, philosophy and sport science to ask how tightly knit collaboration works.
Blog: news, opinions, product tests, events, life.
- Lighthouse interview: challenges for athletes at an Olympics with no spectators (and five billion other Covid-related factors)
Athletes who succeed at the top levels go through an ongoing process of dealing with change, challenge and fluctuation. - Embodied intelligence in skilled performance. New journal article published in the Review of Philosophy and Psychology
Successful performance involves working with anxiety and bodily variability, not against it. - On learning from experts’ embodied experience, in the situations where they thrive. New book chapter with John Sutton.
We can learn so much from people who are really good at what they do. So how do we do this? And why does it matter? - Watch: 7 years of research on embodied cognition and vulnerability in skilled performance. One friendly seminar.
My recent talk, ‘Staying alert to risk and bodily vulnerability in performance and training: a cognitive ethnography study’ is available via YouTube. How exciting! - Lighthouse Interview: the mental side of high-performance sport
This story was published on Macquarie University’s Lighthouse Website as part of Brain Awareness week and reflects the kinds of questions we ask, and research we get excited by, in the Cognitive Ecologies Lab in the University’s Department of Cognitive Science.
Kath Bicknell 