Sophia has a background in economics and urban planning, with a BA (first class honours) and MPhil (distinction) from the Department of Land Economy, Cambridge. Her PhD focuses on the concepts of local democracy, local government, subsidiarity, decentralisation, and localism; analysing policy mobility of localism over time and orthodoxies surrounding concepts of the 'local'. Further research interests include policy and legislative reform, policy creation in government, and processes of political legitimation. Sophia's PhD is supervised by Professor Phil Allmendinger and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council.

Sophia is also a part-time research assistant on an international project titled "Organizing the sustainable city: planning, strategy, governance, management", funded by the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet), working with Professor Phil Allmendinger, Dr Jonathan Metzger, and Dr Petra Adolfsson.