Subjects and teaching content
The academy will also provide training courses led by highly qualified specialists in Yezidi theology for prospective priests. Its teaching staff consists of religious and cultural scholars, theologians, historians and philosophers who will interdisciplinary train the students. We would like to introduce our lecturers and modules. Below are the modules of the first semester.
Mr. Dimitri Pirbari (Pîr Dîma) will teach the students in the field of Yezidi Theology. Teaching contents are all topics which concern the Yezidi theology, social theory, philosophy of religion and theological abstraction. In later semesters, sacred texts of the Yazidi will be methodically analyzed and their content will be treated. The academy is working on the revival of the old Yezidic scriptures, which the students also learn.
Prof. Dr. Malkhaz Songulashvili specialized in lecturing in the field of religious studies and gives an introduction to the different religions. In this seminar, the lecturer gives an introduction to several religions rituals of different religious currents, such as those of Judaism, Christian and Islamic denominations.
Dr. Majid Hassan Ali gives a lecture on the history of the Middle East, with a focus on Middle Eastern peoples and advanced civilizations. In advanced semesters genocides and persecutions, as well as important Yezidi characters and historical events are dealt with.
Mrs. Ala Kavtaradze teaches in psychology, as well as subareas of religious psychology. In critical research on Yezidi theology, psychology reveals the collective fear of change through knowledge, this fear can be controlled with psychological methods and used as a tool. The psychology of religion provides differentiated findings on religious and spiritual experiences and behavior. Psychology open to religious topics can help to deepen personal and collective faith.
Dr hab. Artur Rodziewicz is a Polish scholar specialising in Classical Greek philosophy and Yezidism. He is affiliated with the University of Warsaw, currently based at the Department of Iranian Studies (Faculty of Asian and African Cultures, formerly Faculty of Oriental Studies), having previously been associated with the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology and the Institute of Philosophy. Between 2016 and 2019, he was also employed at the Department of Iranian Studies at the Institute of Oriental Studies, Jagiellonian University, where he led a research project dedicated to Yezidi cosmogony.
He completed his studies at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology and the Institute of Philosophy. He earned his doctorate with a thesis focusing on the metaphysics of the Presocratics and Plato’s concepts of idea and eidos, and later obtained his habilitation in Cultural and Religious Studies based on his monograph Eros and the Pearl: The Yezidi Cosmogonic Myth at the Crossroads of Mystical Traditions. Additionally, he expanded his academic background by auditing courses in Classical Philology, Arabic and Iranian Studies.
He conducts long-term field research across Iraq, Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey, focusing on Yezidi history, sacred rites, oral traditions, and diaspora communities in the South Caucasus. His interdisciplinary research bridges ancient philosophy, Middle Eastern religious mysticism, and Yezidi culture.
From its very inception, he has supported the work of the International Yezidi Theological Academy (Tbilisi, Georgia) as a philosophy lecturer pro publico bono. Since 2026, he has served as Editor-in-Chief of the “International Journal of Yezidi Studies”, which he co-founded. His most recent publication, The Yezidis of the South Caucasus: Their Past and Present in Georgia, was published in 2026 by Brill. He is also engaged in documenting Yezidi culture, religious festivals, and daily life through photography.
In addition to his academic research, he teaches philosophy, ethics, and cultural anthropology at the Jerzy Grotowski 21st Social High School in Warsaw.
He completed his studies at the Institute of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology and the Institute of Philosophy. He earned his doctorate with a thesis focusing on the metaphysics of the Presocratics and Plato’s concepts of idea and eidos, and later obtained his habilitation in Cultural and Religious Studies based on his monograph Eros and the Pearl: The Yezidi Cosmogonic Myth at the Crossroads of Mystical Traditions. Additionally, he expanded his academic background by auditing courses in Classical Philology, Arabic and Iranian Studies.
He conducts long-term field research across Iraq, Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey, focusing on Yezidi history, sacred rites, oral traditions, and diaspora communities in the South Caucasus. His interdisciplinary research bridges ancient philosophy, Middle Eastern religious mysticism, and Yezidi culture.
From its very inception, he has supported the work of the International Yezidi Theological Academy (Tbilisi, Georgia) as a philosophy lecturer pro publico bono. Since 2026, he has served as Editor-in-Chief of the “International Journal of Yezidi Studies”, which he co-founded. His most recent publication, The Yezidis of the South Caucasus: Their Past and Present in Georgia, was published in 2026 by Brill. He is also engaged in documenting Yezidi culture, religious festivals, and daily life through photography.
In addition to his academic research, he teaches philosophy, ethics, and cultural anthropology at the Jerzy Grotowski 21st Social High School in Warsaw.