Programs
The SKHS Master of Arts is a thesis-based, 2-year program. Students in the MA program come from a diverse background and research a variety of topics. Students work closely with their faculty supervisor.
Degree Requirements
- The equivalent of four graduate level one-term courses.
- Students in Sociocultural Studies must take one of KHS 869: Bodies and Social Theory, KHS 873: Critical Methodologies, KHS 877: Intersectionality and Knowledge Translation, or KHS 892: Special Topics in Sociocultural Studies
- A Master's thesis, which must be defended orally.
- 80% attendance at SKHS Graduate Seminar Series each year of studies.
- Certificate in Human Research Ethics (CORE).
The SKHS Master of Science is a thesis-based, 2-year program. Students in the MSc program come from a diverse background and research a variety of topics. Students work closely with their faculty supervisor and research labs.
Degree Requirements
- The equivalent of four graduate level one-term courses.
- A Master's thesis, which must be defended orally.
- 80% attendance at SKHS Graduate Seminar Series each year of studies.
- Certificate in Human Research Ethics (CORE).
The four-year SKHS PhD program offers advanced training in research, teaching, community engagement and knowledge translation.
Degree Requirements
- The equivalent of six graduate level one-term courses, two of which must be taken while enrolled as a PhD student in SKHS.
- Comprehensive Examination, which must be defended orally.
- Thesis Proposal, which must be defended orally.
- A Doctoral thesis, which must be defended orally.
- 80% attendance at SKHS Graduate Seminar Series each year of studies.
- Certificate in Human Research Ethics (CORE).
Research Areas
Degree Options
Master of Science (MSc)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Career Opportunities
- Ergonomic Furniture Design Engineer
- Ergonomic Project Assessment Leader
- Ergonomic Industry Consultant
- Academia
- Biomedical Equipment Technical Support
- Government/Academic Liaison for Academic Partnerships
Mission
Biomechanics is the integration of anatomical and mechanical aspects of human motion and in-depth study in functional anatomy and the mechanics of human movement. Students receive in-depth study in functional anatomy and the mechanics of human movement.
Neuromechanics looks at the fundamental principles that shape how and why we move the way we do, as well as the application of these principles to the improvement of mobility and overall health.
Research Focus
The current faculty research in the program focuses on trying to understand the differences in movement between healthy, athletic and clinical populations and developing objective tasks to track and manage those differences. The field work (in the clinic or sports arena) is accomplished using body worn sensors or simple measures that relate to more complex laboratory-based measures. Other work examines the interaction between movement choice and both mechanical and metabolic energy consumption with the goal of understanding our movement choices. This understanding will improve rehabilitation interventions, prosthetics, and movement aids. These research areas integrate typical biomechanical measurement with perception, fatigue, disease progression, rehabilitation recovery and movement adaptions.
Facilities and Equipment
The biomechanics laboratory located at 28 Division Street is a large multi-use laboratory with group and individual research areas, a film digitization room, photographic dark-room, computer room, and an audio-visual film studio. A separate graduate and faculty research area has a large laboratory for data collection and two rooms that are attached and used predominantly by graduate students working on projects.
The neuromechanics laboratory located at 28 Division Street is a large multi-use laboratory with group and individual research areas.
The software and technical support is exceptional in order to support unique and varied student interests. Equipment used within these facilities consist of high speed 16 mm cameras, video recorder display and analysis systems, digitizer, photographic analysis software, both hardware and telemetric electromyographic units, large force platform, digital scopes, three dimensional electromagnetic systems, A/D converters, accelerometers, velocity gauges, and other assorted smaller items normally found in biomechanics laboratories.
Faculty Members' Research
Jessica Selinger, PhD (Neuromechanics, Simon Fraser University)
She is interested in the fundamental principles that shape how and why we move the way we do, as well as the application of these principles to improve mobility and overall health.
Gerome Manson, PhD (Neuromechanics, University of Toronto and l’Université d’Aix Marseille)
The objective of my research program is to understand the influence of sensory information on the planning and control of goal-directed actions.
J. Tim Bryant, PhD (Mechanical Engineering, Queen’s University) Cross-Appointment with Mechanical Engineering.
Dynamics of the human body, specializing in measurement of the musculoskeletal system; research focus on joint mechanics and ergonomics.
Thesis Topics
Thesis topics have involved the biomechanics of sport skills, the use of electromyography and cinematography to study athletes with various levels of mobility, gait, programs of posture, the biomechanics of lifting, and forces and torques at the knee. Opportunity is provided for students to select a topic of study for approval from a variety of areas in biomechanics.
Degree Options
Master of Science (MSc)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Career Opportunities
- Medical professional (MD)
- Biomedical researcher
- Professor
- Kinesiologist
- Occupational therapist
- Pharma drug representative
- Physiotherapist
Mission
Exercise physiology is the study of cardiovascular and metabolic responses and/or adaptations to acute or chronic physical activity with an emphasis on the role of physical activity in cardiovascular and metabolic function in health and disease including research on the impact of diet and exercise; and oxygen delivery to the exercising muscle in health and disease.
Research
In general, research conducted within the School of Kinesiology and Health Studies has involved the study of exercising human subjects, although opportunities for animal research are available via collaboration with other Queen’s University units. Research directions of faculty members in the various areas of exercise physiology include mechanisms of cardiovascular control and autonomic nervous functions under different acute and chronic conditions; chronic exercise effects on cardiac anatomy and function; effects of varying treatments (i.e. diet and/or exercise) on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism; and the effects of pregnancy on physiological responses to acute and chronic exercise.
Research Laboratories
My primary research aim is to understand the mechanisms by which both different intensities and different types of exercise improve mitochondrial function. In addition, I am interested in the impact that these improvements in mitochondrial function have in both health and disease. My research is currently has 3 main goals. First, to quantify the intensities of various different types of exercise across a range of skill and fitness levels. Second, to examine changes in both whole body fitness and mitochondrial function following exercise training of differing types and intensities and how these changes differ between active, sedentary, and overweight/obese young adults. Third, to elucidate the molecular mechanisms underlying exercise induced mitochondrial biogenesis, specifically, to explore post-translational regulation of PGC-1alpha following exercise. It is hoped that this research will help increase our understanding of the mechanisms by which exercise can improve health and the optimal intensities and types of exercise to activate these mechanisms.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Brendan Gurd
Nutrition and Metabolism Research Group
The aim of my research program is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms underpinning the adaptive response of skeletal muscle to nutrition, exercise training, and immobilization. I specialize in the use of stable isotopic tracers to track skeletal muscle protein turnover combined with a variety of molecular biology techniques for measurement of enzyme activity, protein expression, and post-translational modification.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Chris McGlory
Human Vascular Control Laboratory
Basic Science Research in our laboratory is aimed at finding answers to the fundamental questions:
- How is matching oxygen delivery to demand in the exercising muscle achieved?
- Are there important differences between individuals in the mechanisms involved in this matching and in their effectiveness?
- Can these mechanisms be improved by exercise training, and if so, does the type of exercise training matter?
Principal Investigator: Dr. Michael Tschakovsky
Lifestyle and Cardiometabolic Research Unit
Our research work is focused on the characterization and management of obesity and related co-morbidities in adults. In recent years we have conducted a number of randomized controlled trials to determine the efficacy and effectiveness of lifestyle-based interventions designed to manage abdominal obesity and related health risk.
Principal Investigator: Dr. Robert Ross
Facilities and Equipment
The School of Kinesiology and Health Studies is located at 28 Division Street at the core of Queen’s University’s campus. Included are excellent laboratory resources in the fields of exercise physiology and related disciplines. Measurement capabilities include computerized systems for the determination of exercise metabolism, cardiorespiratory and cardiovascular functions, as well as facilities and equipment for the analysis of body composition and blood biochemistry.
The SKHS exercise physiology lab includes clinical rooms for blood sampling, a treadmill exercise room equipped with 8 state-of-the-art treadmills, statistics analysis office, and research analysis offices. Additional research space is available through the School of Rehabilitation Therapy located close to the Medical Library, and the Regional Rehabilitation Centre of Kingston General Hospital. These resources greatly enhance the scope for research associated with the program.
Faculty Members
Degree Options
Master of Science (MSc)
Master of Arts (MA)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Career Opportunities
- Community-Based Physical Activity Programmer
- Federal and Provincial Government Health Policy Development and Implementation
- Academia
- Health Promotion Consultant for hospitals
- Community-Based Health Promotion Program Manager
Mission
In health promotion, we assume a comprehensive, multi-level view of health and health determinants. We approach problems and issues in a multidisciplinary, applied way, including quantitative, qualitative, and mixed research methodologies in our work. Our work aims to inform health promotion interventions and wider efforts to promote social justice and change. Investigation occurs in a range of public health topics, including physical activity, food security, substance use, and sexual risk behaviours.
Research
Students in health promotion are provided with the training to investigate issues that affect the health of individuals, groups, and communities. They learn how to plan, implement, and evaluate public health interventions.
Research Laboratories
Our research program focuses on translating research knowledge about physical activity into practical guidelines and interventions that foster full and meaningful participation for individuals of all abilities.
Principal Investigators: Drs. Amy Latimer-Cheung and Jennifer Tomasone
Community-Engaged Health Promotion Research | Queen's University
Our research team conducts community-engaged research of public health interventions focusing on physical activity and positive development in youth and on preventing and treating chronic diseases such as Type 2 Diabetes. Working with Indigenous populations, international partners and with school and community-based youth programs, we combine implementation science with qualitative and quantitative methodologies to better understand, evaluate and improve programs aimed at improving health.
We have strong collaborative relationships with the Kahnawá:ke Schools Diabetes Prevention Program, the Kingston Gets Active initiative, the American University of Antigua and with the Universidad de Guadalajara, in the State of Jalisco, Mexico. In 2025, we initiated a collaboration with the University of Ibadan, Oko State, Nigeria.
Principal Investigators: Dr. Lucie Lévesque and Alex M. McComber
Centre for Environmental Healthy Equity
The Centre for Environmental Health Equity (CEHE) works with communities, advocacy groups, policymakers, and citizens to nurture the development of research partnerships that address the conditions that promote healthy environments for all. CEHE does research on water insecurity and wellbeing, environmental determinants of health, the role of trust in health promotion, collective action in environmental health promotion, and colonialism and global health research.
CEHE is an ideal training environment for students who are interested in gaining research skills in the areas of urban justice, water security, human rights, health inequities
Faculty Members
Research
Students in health promotion are provided with the training to investigate issues that affect the health of individuals, groups, and communities. They learn how to plan, implement, and evaluate public health interventions.
Visit the Centre for Environmental Health Equity
Visit the Kingston Gets Active Website
Facilities and Equipment
Graduate students in Health Promotion are provided with individual work spaces in an area which includes: computer work stations, data storage cabinets, interview rooms, a quiet work space, and several seminar rooms.
Students also receive access to specific lab areas in the School including Revved Up, Physical Activity Epidemiology, and the Centre for Environmental Health Equity as required.
The Health Promotion Team maintain active partnerships and links with community groups and service providers locally in Kingston, various locations throughout Ontario; and other locations across Canada.
Degree Options
Master of Science (MSc)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Career Opportunities
- Sports Programming for Local and National Sports Organizations
- Sports Consultant
- Administrative Positions in Local and National Sports Clubs
- Coaching
- Academia
- Program Highlights
Mission
Our mission is to be the best students, teachers, academics, and people that we can possibly be. We will do something every day that brings us closer to our goals, and together, we foster an environment rich with hard work, creative thinking, collaboration, humour, and friendship. We are committed to contributing to our respective fields, to the reputation of our department, and Queen’s University. We will strive to maintain balance in our lives and never take our work more seriously than the people around us.
Facilities and Equipment
Graduate students are provided with individual work space in the Sport Psychology Lab which also includes: computer work stations, interview rooms, a video-editing station with computerized editing facilities and a seminar room.
In addition, there is a fully equipped psycho-motor behaviour laboratory where the research emphasis is in the areas of skilled memory, deliberate practice, and expert performance. Mechanisms responsible for skill acquisition through observation is investigated with software developed for this purpose.
Faculty Members' Research
Dr. Jean Côté (Sport Psychology, University of Ottawa)
Research focuses on the developmental and psycho-social factors that affect sport and physical activity performance and participation.
Dr. Luc Martin (Sport Psychology, University of Western Ontario)
His research interests lie in the general area of sport psychology with a particular focus on group dynamics principles. More specifically, I am interested in the psychosocial influences present in sport and physical activity settings, and how individuals’ can be influenced by, but can also influence the groups to which they belong. Dr. Martin's current projects involve the investigation of group processes such as cohesion, cliques, social identity, and leadership on both individual and team level outcomes in child/youth and elite sport populations. Generally, the main focus is to develop a better understanding of certain psychosocial factors that can be used to inform interdisciplinary and policy relevant research aimed at enriching the sporting environment.
Research
Students in our lab focus on a variety of topics ranging from leadership theories, positive youth development, and group dynamics concepts. The overarching objective is to examine the processes by which expert performance, sport participation, and personal development can be fostered in and through sport.
Degree Options
Master of Arts (MA)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Career Opportunities
- Public Policy Consultant/Advisor/Writer
- Public Servant
- Elementary and high school teacher
- Sport and Recreation Advocate
- Pharmaceutical Representative
- Academia
Mission
Faculty and student research includes exploration into sport, health and the body as crucial conduits for cultural values and for the production and reproduction of social relations of dominance and inequality. Work is particularly concerned with the effects of social forces like class inequality, ableism, racialization, sizeism, sexual regulation, and gender on embodied existence.
The graduate program offers students the opportunity to interrogate critically the social, cultural, economic and political forces that shape the body, sport, health and physical activity.
Research
Individualized programs of study, emphasis on interdisciplinarity, rigorous training in critical and interpretive theory and qualitative research methods, focus on the interconnectedness of sport, health and the body, opportunity to conduct research that spans these realms, commitment to progressive politics and social change.
At the same time, our studies recognize the tremendous potential of bodily practices such as sex, eating, and physical activity to bring pleasure and meaning to individual lives and communities. To this end, current research projects within the program examine: the development of a critical sociology of obesity; “post-welfare,” neo-liberal forms of social policy related to issues such as food, school nutrition programs, and breast cancer; relationships between bodies, styles of movement, and discourses about gender and sexuality; and, race, nationalism, and militarized sport.
The unique contribution of our program to graduate training in cultural studies, sociology and history of sport, health and the body lies in our focus on interdisciplinary, critical and interpretive approaches to these phenomena. Students are encouraged to take courses in other departments such as sociology, politics, history, gender studies, cultural studies and geography and to bring the theoretical and methodological approaches associated with those disciplines to bear on their own projects. Through coursework, reading groups, seminars and independent studies within the School, students are exposed to key paradigms (Marxism, feminism, post-structuralism, phenomenology, etc.) in the critical and interpretive study of sport, health, and the body. The program has been designed to allow students maximum flexibility in pursuing research topics of their own choosing. This flexibility brings much diversity to the program and provides an excellent chance for students to exercise their own creativity and originality. Each student is encouraged to take advantage of the expertise of all faculty members in the field and to make connections with faculty in other departments at the University.
Facilities and Equipment
All socio-cultural students are provided with private work stations; have access to seminar and tutorial spaces for teaching and meetings; quiet space for studying; and locked storage spaces for research data.
Faculty Members' Research
Mary Louise Adams, PhD (Socio-Cultural Studies, University of Toronto)
Dr. Adams researches gender, sexuality, and feminism; sport and culture; sociology and history of exercise and fitness; theories of embodiment.
Samantha King, PhD (Socio-Cultural Studies of Sport, Health and the Body, University of Illinois)
Dr. King researches cultural studies; social theory; the body, health and culture. KING RESEARCH GROUP
Elaine Power, PhD (Socio-Cultural Studies, University of Toronto)
Dr. Power researches the sociology of food; food and poverty; the body; childhood; qualitative methods.
Courtney Szto, PhD (Communications, Simon Fraser University)
Dr. Szto’s research broadly explores the relationship between physical cultures and intersectional justice
Degree Options
Master of Science (MSc)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Career Opportunities
- Public health research
- Clinical research
- Epidemiologist
- Academia (e.g., faculty member)
- Medical professional (e.g., MD)
Mission
A key message from the population health framework is the complex nature of the biological and socio-cultural interactions on the health status of the population. In order to properly understand issues of health at the population level, there is a need for highly qualified people with diverse educational backgrounds. The physical activity epidemiology graduate program responds to this need by creating a unique environment for the training of highly qualified professionals to address the population health framework within the context of physical activity and sedentary behaviour.
Facilities and Equipment
Graduate students are provided with individual work spaces in the Physical Activity Epidemiology Laboratory which includes a data management center that houses an array of investigator driven and public access databases.
Faculty Members' Research
Dr. Ian Janssen, PhD (Physical Activity Epidemiology, Queen’s University)
His population-based research program examines the role that physical inactivity and obesity play in the development of poor health in both child and adult populations.
Dr. Eun-Young Lee, PhD (Physical Education and Recreation, University of Alberta)
Their overarching research agenda focuses on bridging social issues (e.g., climate change, gender inequality) and theories (e.g., intersectionality) with quantitative research methodology to advance population health in cross-cultural and global contexts.
Dr. Robert Ross, PhD (Exercise Physiology, Universite de Montreal)
Dr. Ross's study the effects of various treatments on lipid and carbohydrate metabolism, and adipose tissue distribution; acute and chronic effects of caloric restriction and exercise on human obesity.
Research
Students in physical activity epidemiology graduate program are provided with the training to investigate how physical activity and sedentary behaviour affect the health of individuals, groups, and the Canadian population. They also learn about what intrapersonal, interpersonal, environmental, and policy factors influence physical activity and sedentary behaviour levels.
Visit the Physical Activity Epidemiology Lab