This site brings together my work as an expertise researcher and communications professional. I share experiences and insights that underpin much of this work here too: writing on bikes, stories from life.
Thinking. Doing. Performance.
I am an expertise researcher, teacher, speaker and communications professional. I offer more than 14 years academic expertise in cognitive science, anthropology and performance studies and over a decade of experience as a journalist, copywriter, digital editor and content producer.
In a world where people are often told they should be different, better, or more than they already are, I enjoy creating a rich variety of content that encourages people to enjoy, support, and marvel at the bodies and minds they have.
Connecting these outputs 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 academic. The joy for life of a mountain biker. The communication skills of a teacher. The articulate expression of writer. The technical nous and curiosity of a Gen X-Yer. The creative eye of an original thinker.
Please contact me to discuss future projects or collaborations.
Featured news
Out now!
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, events, publications, product tests, life.
On failing and learning. Together. Mit Elefanten.
A video introduction, and background, to a new book chapter with the delightful Kristina Brümmer: ‘No elephants today!’ Recurrent experiences of failure while learning a movement practice.
Editors’ introduction: the situated intelligence of collaborative embodied skills (preprint)
John Sutton and I are beyond thrilled to share that our edited collection, Collaborative Embodied Performance: Ecologies of skill, is now available!
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 ethnographic 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.
SBS News interview: women in high risk sports
“Parkour is not as dangerous as it looks from the outside. Part of it is looking at a challenge and breaking down the risk, and then building up the skills to mitigate those risks.”
A brief reflection on love, loveliness, and the first year of grief
Grief is so different for everyone, which is as much to do with the person they are, as the person they lost, and the circumstances that surround that loss.
A beautiful obituary for my mum, Anne Bicknell
I always described Anne to other people as like winning the mum jackpot. She had so many skills, passions and interests, and had such a warm, excited and encouraging way of bringing these out in others.
Trail therapy
There’s nothing quite like a day out on the trails for shaking out one lot of feelings and replacing them with others.
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Kath Bicknell 