Eszter Spät is a Hungarian academic and journalist, who specializes in Yezidi religion and in its relationship with the Kurdish independence movement. She directed the documentary Following the Peacock, which explored the lives of a Yezidi community in Sinjar in northern Iraq.
Education
In 1996 Spät was awarded a MA degree in Classical Philology from Eötvös University, Budapest, presenting a thesis entitled: “Priscillian – Monk, Heretic, Martyr, Astrologer". In 1999 she was awarded a second MA degree in English Language and Literature at the same university, with a thesis entitled: "The Pelagian Movement in the British Isles”. In 1999 she also earned a MA degree in Medieval Studies at the Central European University, Budapest, with a thesis entitled: "Manichaeism in the anti-Manichaean Literature: The Figure of Mani in the Acta Archelai". In 2009 she was awarded her PhD in Medieval Studies from the Central European University, Budapest, defending a thesis entitled: "Late Antique Motifs in Yezidi Oral Tradition".
From 2011 to 2016 Spät was funded by a postdoctoral research grant from the Hungarian Scientific and Research Fund (OTKA). From 2011 to 2012 she obtained a research grant from the Gerda Henkel Foundation for research in Iraq and Germany. From 2014 to 2015 she was appointed as a Visiting Research Fellow at Ruhr-University Bochum. In 2016 she was a Visiting Research Fellow at Zentrum Moderner Orient, Berlin. She has published on Gnosticism and Manichaeism. She has also worked as a war correspondent.
Yezidi scholarship
Spät specializes in Yezidi religion and in its relationship with the Kurdish movement. Her work demonstrated that there had been a resurgence in Yezidi religious practices in a "post-ISIS" political climate. She has also recorded Yezidi histories and beliefs around fermans (similar to pogroms). her work has also recorded Yezidi responses to the story of Shahid bin Jarr. As a result of her research in Iraq in 2011 and 2012, Spät also made the anthropological documentary, Following the Peacock. This documentary followed a local group from northern Iraq, the Yezidi Sinjar community, and to show their traditions.
Bibliography
Books
Eszter Spät, Late Antique Motifs in Yezidi Oral Tradition, Gorgias Press: (NJ) Piscataway, 2010. Ezster Spät, The Yezidis, SAQI Books: London, 2005.