FIU’s first kinesiology Ph.D. just graduated, is already producing noteworthy research

As the first person to graduate from FIU with a doctorate in kinesiology, Asia Joseph is expanding the understanding of athletic performance.

Joseph’s research revealed 30 percent of an athlete’s performance is driven by their emotional state — in particular, their mood and energy levels.

The connection between the mind and body is one she understood as an athlete herself. Joseph is a college athlete who played volleyball for the University of Trinidad and Tobago while earning her bachelor’s degree. She later earned a master’s from Arkansas Tech in strength and conditioning, which eventually led her to FIU where she coached various athletic teams including football, golf, swim, women’s soccer and tennis, which secured the 2023 Conference USA championship. When FIU’s College of Arts, Sciences & Education launched its Kinesiology track in the fall of 2020, Joseph joined the program in spring 2022 to begin her doctoral research. This past Sunday, April 26th, she made history as the first graduate of FIU’s Kinesiology doctorate program.

“Asia’s trajectory is particularly impactful,” says Marcelo Bigliassi, director of the graduate program in kinesiology at FIU. “She took a calculated risk by joining a new program while working with established scientists in the field, and delivered work of exceptional quality, publishing in top-tier journals and engaging with complex machine learning models to address real-world problems.”

For her research, athletes performed the same task before and after listening to music, which showed that it regulated their arousal or mood. Using this information, Joseph can create individualized profiles for athletes to determine their optimal performance states.

“Because I coach, I wanted to do something practical that I could then replicate and apply to help my athletes grow,” Joseph says. “I can’t know what affects performance and not implement it in my real-life scenario.”

Her research also identifies the physiological markers that distinguish amateur athletes from elite performers. The elite athletes demonstrated greater ability to control their arousal and stress levels than amateur athletes. Elite athletes also master the skill of positive self-talk to reach their zone, Joseph said. Without these tools, the high levels of arousal required for peak competition can turn into anxiety. Professional athletes typically maintain performance under pressure through their emotional regulation skills, which can be measured through physiological responses. In contrast, amateur athletes are more likely to struggle to regulate their emotions to reduce stress or control their thoughts mid-game.

Joseph plans to build on her past research with input from FIU professors Trey Watson and Marcelo Bigliassi.

“I know I want to continue my research,” she adds. “I’m excited to be done, but I’m more excited to do more. We’ve published three studies, but what’s next? How can we build on these? I have big brains on my committee who I can bounce ideas from and create magic.”

Joseph now incorporates more awareness of athletes' well-being into her coaching approach. She is currently coaching at the University of Colorado, where she uses technology such as Catapult to monitor athletes' movement patterns and link performance data with factors like sleep quality and mood.

Though her research focused on elite athletes, the findings can apply to all kinds of workouts. Bigliassi says Joseph’s success is just the beginning for the kinesiology program.

“The expectation is not simply completion, but the production of rigorous, innovative, and high-impact work,” he said. “As director, I intend to continue pushing for that level across all students in the program.”