The Motion‑Sensing Phenomenology (MSP) Lab is a collaborative research and supervisory space within the InterActive for Life Research Team, dedicated to the study and ongoing development of Motion‑Sensing Phenomenology (MSP) as a movement‑based research methodology.
Grounded in the Function2Flow model and the phenomenological work co‑developed by Rebecca J. Lloyd and Stephen Smith, the MSP Lab supports graduate thesis research and collective methodological inquiry focused on living experience as it unfolds through movement. The lab brings together graduate researchers and InterActive for Life team members to explore how sensing, motion, learning, and meaning are dynamically intertwined in physical activity, education, and active aging contexts.
How the MSP Lab Works
The MSP Lab operates through regular collective meetings, where InterActive for Life team members and graduate researchers come together to support thesis project progression and deepen engagement with Motion‑Sensing Phenomenology. These meetings provide a shared space for movement‑based inquiry, phenomenological reflection, dialogical exchange, and methodological discussion directly connected to students’ thesis work.
A defining feature of the MSP Lab is its emphasis on community‑building around thesis supervision. Graduate researchers engage in peer mentoring, with more experienced researchers supporting those earlier in their studies, while all participants contribute to the ongoing refinement and articulation of MSP as a methodology.
Interested in Joining the MSP Lab as a Graduate Student?
The MSP Lab welcomes prospective graduate students who wish to pursue thesis research that engages with movement awareness, sensitivity, and phenomenological inquiry.
Students may be interested in:
- a physical activity–related research topic, or
- an education‑related phenomenon explored through movement sensitivity, such as
- how we move to learn
- conceptualizing learning as movement
- emotional attunement and the ways e‑motions move
- embodied relations in teaching, learning, and pedagogical practice
Prospective graduate students are encouraged to express interest via:
- a brief research pitch outlining the proposed topic and how movement sensitivity may be central to the inquiry
- a curriculum vitae (CV)
- a review of the Function2Flow model, demonstrating thoughtful consideration of how movement awareness may relate to the topic of interest
The Motion‑Sensing Phenomenology (MSP) Lab operates within the InterActive for Life Research Team and supports graduate thesis research grounded in Motion‑Sensing Phenomenology and the Function2Flow model.
For more information on the phenomenological rationale for the MSP Lab, please see:
- Lloyd, R. J. & Smith, S. J. (2006). Motion-sensitive phenomenology. In K. Tobin & J. Kincheloe (Eds.), Doing educational research: A handbook (pp. 289-309). Boston, MA, United States: Sense Publishers.
- Lloyd, R. J. & Smith, S. J. (2015). Doing motion-sensing phenomenology. In K. Tobin, & S.R. Steinberg (Eds.), Doing educational research: A handbook (Second ed.) (pp. 255-277). Rotterdam, NL, United States: Sense Publishing.
- Smith, S.J. (2016). Movement and Place, Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy (M. Peters, Ed.). New York: Springer. doi:10.1007/978-981-287-532-7_92-1
- Smith, S. J., Saevi, T., Lloyd, R. J., and Churchill, S. (2017), Editorial for the special issue “Life Phenomenology: Movement, Affect and Language” of Phenomenology & Practice, 11 (1), 2017, 1-4.
- Lloyd, R. & Smith, S. (2021). A Practical Introduction to Motion-Sensing Phenomenology. PHEnex journal/revue phénEPS, 11(2), 1-18.