Dr. Michael Pittman is the Academic Director of General Education and Associate Professor at the American University of Armenia and serves as the Accreditation Liaison Officer for the university. He has over twenty years of experience in higher education, including administrative and teaching roles, as well as the development and management of educational programs, curricula, and events. His research engages in the discovery and exploration of connections among historically differentiated disciplines, from religion to literature, film, and visual culture, with a focus on the Armenian-Greek philosopher and thinker G.I. Gurdjieff (d.1949). Michael has a long-time interest in contemplative and meditative dimensions of religious and spiritual traditions and has taught Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) in a variety of academic and non-academic settings.
Dr. Pittman also spent time early in his career in Armenia the Civic Education Project as a Volunteer Faculty Fellow, where he taught and worked with several universities and NGOs in Armenia as a reviewer and educational consultant. He also taught graduate-level academic writing courses in Istanbul, Turkey for several summer schools for students from across Asia and Eastern Europe. Additionally, he developed and organized a series of international conferences in Yerevan, Armenia on G.I. Gurdjieff.
Education:
Ph.D. in Comparative Literature and Religion, Stony Brook University, Stony Brook, New York
B.A. in English and Philosophy/Religion, Appalachian State University, Boone, North Carolina
Selected Publications:
Books
Classical Spirituality in Contemporary America: The Confluence and Contribution of G.I. Gurdjieff and Sufism, Continuum Publishing, London (2012).
G.I. Gurdjieff: Armenian Roots, Global Branches, editor and author. Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars Press (2008)
Articles
“G.I. Gurdjieff as Cosmopolitan of early 20th Century: Transformation in Translation.” The Teachings & Legacy of G.I. Gurdjieff: Conference Anthology. Center for the Study of World Religions, Harvard Divinity School (2025).
“Concluding All and Everything, First Series: Gurdjieffian Notions of the Soul and the Meaning of Life.” Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review (2024).
“Beelzebub in India and Tibet: Continuing Conversations on the Soul in All and Everything.” Postscripts: The Journal of Sacred Texts, Cultural Histories, and Contemporary Contexts. 12.2, 189-221 (2021)
“Deliteralizing Christianity: Gurdjieff and Almznoshinoo.” Correspondences 8, No. 2 (2020).
“Gurdjieff, Art, and the Legominism of Ashiata Shiemash.” Religion and Arts. Vol 21, Issue 1-2 (2017).
“Through the Lens of Gurdjieff: Glimpses of Sufism in Turkey.” Fieldwork in Religion. 11.1 (November 2016), p. 36-52.
“Orality and Refractions of Early Literary Textualizations in Gurdjieff’s Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson.” International Journal for the Study of New Religions 6.2 (November 2015)
“Majid Majidi and Baran: Iranian Cinematic Poetics and the Spiritual Poverty of Rumi.” Journal of Religion and Film. Vol. 15, No. 2 October 2011.