Amelia Wood is a PhD candidate at SOAS, University of London researching Spiritual Abuse in modern transnational yoga movements. Her work aims to centre survivor voices; to widen the definition of Spiritual Abuse to include instances of sexual abuse in yoga contexts; and is informed by the work of feminist philosophers such as Miranda Fricker. Dr. Sian Hawthorn is her PhD supervisor. 

Amelia has presented at conferences at the University of Chester (UK) and University of California Riverside (USA). She presented at, and was on the organising committee for, the May 2022 ‘Yoga Darsana, Yoga Sadhana’ conference at the Jagiellonian University (Poland). She presented her work at public facing events for the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies in 2019 and 2021. 

Amelia was a recipient of the Phiroz Mehta Trust scholarship in 2014, which enabled her to undertake an MA in the Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at SOAS, which she completed in 2015. Her dissertation focused on the roles and representation of women in pre-modern yoga. 

Amelia has been a member of the SOAS Centre of Yoga Studies since 2022. Amelia has been teaching yoga and working in the yoga industry for over a decade. Alongside doctoral research, she trains and teaches yoga teachers in the UK and online.