Early in her career, she explored the close connection between the formation of dense fossil concentrations and sequence stratigraphy.
Subsequently, she was one of the pioneers in the field of experimental taphonomy, used to understand how recently dead organisms are preserved in the fossil record.
Currently, Kidwell's research emphasizes how very young fossil records, that is, remains that are currently or recently accumulating on the seafloor or the land, can be used to understand how human activities have affected ecosystems.
[4] In 2002, she was named a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in 2003, she was appointed William Rainey Harper Professor by the University of Chicago.
In 2015 she received the Mary Clark Thompson Medal from the United States National Academy of Sciences "for most important service to geology and paleontology".