Department of Kinesiology

Our Department's Mission

Kinesiology focuses on the complex role of physical activity in our health and well-being throughout life. Yet, physical activity and sport are more than essential components of maintaining health. Our department explores the historical, cultural, economic, developmental, cognitive, neuromotor and physiological aspects of our engagement in physical activity.

We partner with experts in diverse disciplines to enhance human performance and improve public health. Our department was one of the first in the nation dedicated to the study of physical culture, and we launched the first undergraduate degree program in kinesiology in the nation in1974.

Our research clusters include:

Cognitive Motor Neuroscience

Research in the Cognitive Motor Neuroscience Laboratory investigates the neural mechanisms underlying the selection, planning, learning, initiation and execution of movement. Using an interdisciplinary approach, these processes are studied from infancy to old age. Research programs include adaptive sensorimotor control and integration, exercise psychophysiology, neuromechanics, perceptual motor development, movement disorders and computational motor neuroscience.

Exercise Physiology

The Exercise Physiology group studies everything from the genetic aspects of exercise to the molecular and cellular aspects of skeletal muscle and cardiovascular biology. Faculty and students address important research questions related to skeletal muscle, cardiovascular physiology and metabolism. Studies also examine the influence of exercise interventions on preventing and treating disease and related risk factors.

Physical Cultural Studies

The Physical Cultural Studies (PCS) group advances the critical and theoretical analysis of physical culture, in its myriad forms. These include sport, exercise, health, dance and movement-related practices. PCS research seeks to locate and understand the expressions and experiences of physical culture in the broader contexts (social, political, economic, and technological) within which they are situated, and which they simultaneously help to (re)produce.