YS Team

Dr. Seth Powell

Founder and Director

✉️  [email protected]

Seth Powell is a scholar of Indian religions, Sanskrit, and yoga traditions, who earned his PhD in South Asian Religions at Harvard University. His dissertation comprised a critical edition, translation, and detailed study of a 15th-century Sanskrit yoga text from south India known as the Śivayogapradīpikā—which uniquely combines yoga, ritual, and devotion. He also works extensively on the visual and material culture of yoga in premodern India, uncovering yoga's past through temple sculptures. 

Seth founded Yogic Studies in 2018 and serves as the Director and Head Faculty. He is also the host of The Yogic Studies Podcast. He lives with his wife and two children in the wine country of the Napa Valley, California. 

Anna Lee White

Administrator

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Anna Lee is a doctoral candidate at McGill University’s School of Religious Studies with a concentration in gender and women’s studies. She previously completed her BA from Mount Holyoke College in anthropology and South Asian studies and her MA from the University of Chicago Divinity School. She also lived, studied, and researched in India, including through language programs with the American Institute of Indian Studies and the University of Wisconsin-Madison's program in Varanasi. Anna Lee’s research focuses on Hindu bhakti (devotional) literature in Hindi and Sanskrit from early modern North India, particularly on the history of the Rāmānandī sampradāy. She is also working on an edited volume about the  Sanskrit genre of the stotra. 

Anna Lee's interest in yoga spans diverse topics including ascetics' engagement with bhakti traditions in early modern India to yoga and contemporary politics in India and North America. As Yogic Studies' Administrator, her work includes running the book club for YS Members, managing the course websites, answering questions from students, coordinating TAs and work-study students, and more.

Leddy Stroud

Social Media Manager

Leddy Stroud is the Social Media Manager at Yogic Studies. He earned his BA in Religious Studies from Vanderbilt University, focusing on Hindu, Buddhist, and Sufi traditions. In addition to his classroom studies, he’s also lived and studied throughout North India through the American Institute of Indian Studies and the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s program in Varanasi.

Since completing his studies, he’s worked in marketing at tech companies in Los Angeles while keeping up his postural yoga practice.

Dr. Sabbi Lall

Teaching Assistant

Sabbi Lall is a teaching assistant at Yogic Studies where she supports faculty and students throughout YS courses. She has a background in the sciences, holding a Doctorate of Philosophy from the University of Oxford in Biochemistry. Her professional experience in the neurobiology and cognitive sciences is coupled with her academic study of the history of meditation and mindfulness practices.

Sabbi became deeply interested in pursuing academic research in Yoga Studies during a trip to Karnataka, India with Seth Powell and Yogic Studies in 2020. She recently completed the MA Traditions of Yoga and Meditation at SOAS, University of London.

She currently teaches postural yoga and meditation in the Boston, MA area.

Katherine Bennett

Teaching Assistant

Katherine is currently pursuing an MA in Transpersonal Wilderness Therapy at Naropa University. She previously completed an MA in Religious Studies at Naropa University, focusing on Buddhist, Hindu tantric, and yogic traditions, as well as the Sanskrit language. Katherine’s thesis research explores the practitioner’s encounter with yoginīs in the textual traditions of the Vidyāpīṭha, the Cult of the Yoginīs, and the Kaula reformation of Śākta-Śaiva Tantric traditions during India’s early medieval period.

As a RYT 500, she has spent several years studying, practicing, and teaching postural yoga, yoga philosophy, and meditation in Asia (India, Nepal, Thailand, and Malaysia) and Peru. She is the former Administrative Assistant at Buddhist Studies Online and is excited to be involved in YS courses and our community.

Fran Aguilera

Teaching Assistant

Fran Aguilera double majored in English Literature and Linguistics & Aesthetics at Pontificia Universidad Católica in Santiago, Chile. During a stay in the United States she deepened her practice of yogāsana and began practicing meditation. When she got back to Chile, she completed two teacher training programs. Her studies focus primarily on Sanskrit grammar and Advaita Vedānta.

As a TA at Yogic Studies, Fran supports faculty and students throughout the Sanskrit courses and is currently completing the Sanskrit Advanced Certificate Program at Yogic Studies.

She also teaches Introductory Sanskrit to Spanish speakers.

Rob Zabel

Podcast Editor

Rob Zabel (MA, ERYT500) is a scholar-practitioner of yogic traditions who has been teaching yoga, history, and philosophy in Los Angeles for over a decade. He first began studying Sanskrit independently in high school, received his MA in Yoga Studies from Loyola Marymount University, and is currently enrolled at the Divinity School of the University of Chicago.

His research interests include the textual history of Haṭhayoga, the Nāth and Udassin sampradāyas, and New Religious Movements (NRMs). Rob is also a musician, calligrapher, and naturalist who formerly worked for the forest service in Washington state and on several organic farms along the west coast. As the producer and editor for The Yogic Studies Podcast, The Sanskrit Studies Podcast, and The Buddhist Studies Podcast, Rob works closely with hosts Seth, Antonia, and Kate to bring listeners fascinating insights and new research from leading scholars.