Academic
I am currently a PhD candidate at SOAS.
In 2015 I completed the MA in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at SOAS, University of London with distinction. I am now a PhD candidate researching modern transnational yoga movements and spiritual abuse. My work brings together yoga studies and gender studies and is specifically a feminist project.
I have presented my work at several international conferences and was on the organising committee for the 2022 Yoga Darsana Yoga Sadhana conference in Krakow, Poland. I am also on the steering committee for the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies.
Conferences
May 2024 | Yoga Darsana, Yoga Sadhana, Hamburg, Germany.
Paper title: ‘I Broke a Woman’s Heart Today: Creative Reflections on the Study of Sexual Abuse in One’s Industry’.
May 2022 | Yoga Darsana, Yoga Sadhana, Krakow, Poland. I was part of the organising committee.
Papers: ‘Intersections: Spiritual Abuse, Sexual Abuse and Modern Yoga’ and ‘On Scandal’, as part of a panel titled Ethics and Elephants.
March 2022 | Religion and Sexual Abuse, University of California, Riverside, USA.
Paper title: ‘Spiritual and Sexual Abuse in Modern Yoga Contexts: Re-defining Parameters as a Means to Resist Injustice’.
September 2021 | Spiritual Abuse: Coercive Control in Religions at the University of Chester, UK.
Paper title: ‘Spiritual Abuse in Modern Yoga Contexts: Definitions and Delineations’.
Courses
If you are interested in the topic of Spiritual Abuse in modern yoga you can take a 3 module online course with me. I recorded this for the SOAS Yoga Studies Online platform. Find out more here.
Articles
2024 | Chapter: ‘Trauma, Yoga and Spiritual Abuse’ in The Yoga Teacher’s Survival Guide edited by Theo Wildcroft and Harriet McAtee.
2019 | Book Review of Suzanne Newcombe’s Yoga in Britain: Stretching Spirituality and Educating Yogis.
2015 | ‘The Roles and Representations of Women in Pre-Modern Yoga Practice’ | MA dissertation available to read on academia.edu.
Awards
2014 | The Phiroz-Mehta Trust Scholarship | This scholarship funded my place on the MA course at SOAS.
Public Engagement
2022 | Podcast interview | Nourish Yoga Training podcast In Our Experience. You can listen here.
2021 | Online lecture | SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies on ‘Yoga, Sexual Violation and Discourse’. You can watch the full recording on YouTube here.
2019 | Panel Event | Triyoga, London, ‘Rethinking Gurus in Modern Yoga’. You can listen to this as a podcast here.
Teaching Experience
2020-present | I facilitate the online Yogacampus course, ‘A Comprehensive History of Yoga: Research and Scholarship’.
It runs several times a year. Find out more here.
2022 | I convened and taught on the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies summer short course.
2021 | I taught on the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies Summer School.
To find out about the latest events, courses and yoga classes join my mailing list or follow my social media.