Keanu Heydari was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is an eighth-year doctoral candidate in History at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he also earned his M.A. in History in 2022. He holds a B.A. in History with a minor in French from the University of California, Los Angeles (2017).

Heydari’s dissertation examines the Union des étudiants iraniens en France (U.E.I.F.) and its role in transnational activism from the postwar period through the Iranian Revolution of 1979. His research demonstrates how politically engaged, secular Iranian students in Paris mobilized human rights discourse to critique the authoritarian rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi and to situate their struggle within broader anti-imperialist and decolonial movements.

His broader interests lie in modern European intellectual history, particularly the intersections of political thought, psychoanalysis, and postwar critical theory. He engages the writings of Michel Foucault, Jacques Lacan, Jean-François Lyotard, and Étienne Balibar to investigate the relationship between subject formation, discourse, and the crises of liberal modernity.

In addition to his historical research, Heydari serves as an Environmental Storyteller Fellow at the Ecology Center in Ann Arbor, where he develops narrative-based projects on environmental justice, public health, and community advocacy. His work in this capacity explores how historical consciousness and storytelling practices can inform contemporary efforts toward ecological and social transformation.

He also studies critical New Testament scholarship and the history of theology, with a particular interest in the apocalyptic turn in Pauline studies, engaging the work of Martinus C. de Boer, Beverly Roberts Gaventa, and Douglas A. Campbell. An ordained deacon in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), he serves at First Presbyterian Church of Ann Arbor.