A content creator and educator with parallel skill sets in research and media

Kath Bicknell is a researcher, writer, speaker, disability advocate and lifelong cyclist. She has over 16 years experience working in research and teaching roles in Performance Studies (University of Sydney and the National Institute of Dramatic Art), Cognitive Science (Macquarie University) and Anthropology (Macquarie University).

She also works as a communications professional sharing her research interests in skill learning and expertise with a general audience. This includes six years with Australian television broadcaster SBS, working on global sports events as an editor and producer with the SBS Sport digital team.

Research that prioritises real-world experiences and each individual’s unique capacities

Kath uses ethnography and other experience-based methods to investigate skill learning and expert performance processes in sport and daily life.

She wrote a world first PhD on the lived experience of mountain biking (2008-2011) after becoming interested in why scientific studies of sport struggled to account for what happens out of the lab and on the day of big events, and why athletes would spend years gaining something called “experience” often at their own expense.

This early research expanded to include:

  • additional case studies on skill learning and expertise in cycling;
  • the positive roles of fear and failure in circus arts;
  • collaborative remembering processes as we age;
  • using digital technology to manage and overcome chronic pain.

A skilled communicator uniting diverse and specialist audiences

Kath has published in an unusually broad array of books and journals spanning philosophy, psychology, cultural studies, theatre and performance studies, and cognitive science. She has written over 500 articles for sports websites and magazines, and is internationally recognised for her work in cycling media.

Her first book, Collaborative Embodied Cognition: ecologies of skill, co-edited with long-time collaborator Professor John Sutton, was published in 2022.

Additional highlights include attending the Trek Bikes inaugural women’s summit in Wisconsin USA as a multimedia journalist, working on six Tour de Frances and the 2022 FIFA World Cup with SBS and sharing keynote talks on skill and career development in academic contexts.

Making complex ideas accessible and applicable

Students and colleagues praise Kath’s abilities to distil complex information from the humanities and sciences in plain English. She’s known for enthusiastically mixing relatable real-world examples with out-of-the-box thinking and analysis while motivating others to excel in interests and passions of their own. Her accessible and uplifting presentation style means she is often described as “setting the tone” for a conference.

A lifelong interest in thinking, movement and skilled performance

A lifelong cyclist, Kath has competed in most disciplines of mountain biking at a national level, including cross-country, marathon, endurance and enduro. She raced with the Merida Flight Centre and MarathonMTB.com teams in the early to mid-2000s.

While she didn’t know it at the time, she lives with several invisible disabilities including a connective tissue disorder, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) and an autonomic disorder, Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS). Unable to train for as long, or recover as quickly, as her competitors, this motivated her to keep seeking out additional “one percenters” (and 0.1 percenters) that lead to performance improvements beyond physiological strength and fitness alone.

EDS and POTS have had a significant impact on Kath’s research interest in embodied cognition, the diverse and variable ways all people think, move and perform, and her inclusive approach to teaching and learning.