Jason Birch

Jason Birch is a Senior Research Fellow at SOAS University of London and the University of Marburg, co-director of the Yogacintāmaṇi project at the University of Massachusetts Boston, and a visiting researcher at the University of Alberta. He holds an Honorary Associate position at the University of Sydney. His academic background includes a DPhil from the University of Oxford and a BA Honours from the University of Sydney.

Dr. Birch's research focuses on South Asian traditions of yoga and medicine, with a particular emphasis on Haṭhayoga texts and their historical context. He has edited and translated six texts for the Hatha Yoga Project (2015–2020) and published extensively on premodern yoga and Ayurveda. His work bridges textual analysis, history of medicine, and religious studies.

He has taught at SOAS, Università Ca’ Foscari (Venice), Won Kwang University (South Korea), and Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles). He co-founded the Centre of Yoga Studies at SOAS and the Journal of Yoga Studies.

Awards include the Boden Fund Scholarship (2012) and Clarendon Fund Scholarship (2008–2011), alongside declined fellowships from the British Academy and ERC Project AyurYog.

His research collaborations include the ‘Light on Hatha Yoga’ project, the Suśruta Project, and the AyurYog Project at the University of Vienna. He actively contributes to interdisciplinary initiatives exploring yoga’s historical and cultural dimensions.