Associate Professor
Focus: World Religions
Contact Information
(518) 694-7385
michael.pittman@acphs.edu
Speaker Request
EDUCATION
- Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Religious Studies, State University of New York at Stony Brook
COURSES TAUGHT AT ACPHS
- Religion and Film
- Middle Eastern Literature and Film
- Islam and Sufism
- Introduction to Buddhism
- The Short Story
- The Pre-modern World
- The Modern World
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- G.I. Gurdjieff and the Role of Orality in Spiritual Teaching and Practice; Sufi Poetry; Religious Themes in Medieval Literature; Classical Themes in Contemporary Sufism and Buddhism. Faith and Redemption in the films of Andrei Tarkovsky, Lars von Trier, and Wim Wenders; The Islamic Other in Iranian Cinema.
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Book
"Classical Spirituality in Contemporary America: The Confluence and Contribution of G.I. Gurdjieff and Sufism", Continuum Publishing, London, May 2012.
Edited Book
"G.I. Gurdjieff: Armenian Roots, Global Branches", Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2008.
Chapters
"G.I. Gurdjieff: Cosmopolitanism in the Late 19th/Early 20th Century Caucasus". In Creoles, Diasporas, Cosmopolitanisms: The Creolization of Nations, Cultural Languages, Global Languages and Literatures. David Gallagher, editor. Academica Press, Palo Alto, CA, 2012, pages 499-511.
"Problematizing East-West Essentialisms: Discourse, Authorhood, and Identity Crisis in Orhan Pamuk's Beyaz Kale (The White Castle)". In Global Perspectives on Orhan Pamuk's Literature: Existentialism and Politics. Mehnaz Mona-Afridi and David Buyze, editors. Palgrave-Macmillan Press, New York, 2012, pages 63-74.
"Introduction" in G.I. Gurdjieff: Armenian Roots, Global Branches. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2008, pages vii-xv.
"Laughter as Demolition and Reconstruction in Beelzebub's Tales" in G.I. Gurdjieff: Armenian Roots, Global Branches. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2008, pages 13-32.
"Preliminary Remarks on Soul-Making in Beelzebub's Tales" in G.I. Gurdjieff: Armenian Roots, Global Branches. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2008, pages 44-56.
"Gurdjieff's View of Education in Beelzebub's Tales" in G.I. Gurdjieff: Armenian Roots, Global Branches. Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Cambridge, UK, 2008, pages 68-76.
"Soul-Making in Beelzebub's Tales to his Grandson", Proceedings of the All and Everything International Humanities Conference. Seymour Ginsburg and Ian MacFarlane, editors. England, 2007, pages 79-96."
Gurdjieffan Laughter: Demolition and Reconstruction", Proceedings of the All and Everything International Humanities Conference. Seymour Ginsburg and Ian MacFarlane, editors. England, 2006, pages 133-153.
Articles
"Majid Majidi and Baran: Iranian Cinematic Poetics and the Spiritual Poverty of Rumi"in Journal of Religion and Film, vol. 15, no. 2, October 2011.