Keanu M. Heydari

Curriculum Vitae

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Education

  • Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, NJ. M.Div., Francis Grimké Scholar, matriculating fall 2026 (2026–2029).
  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies. Ph.D. in History, degree expected December 2026. Dissertation: “General Intelligence: Iranian Student Activism and the Documentary Politics of Sojourn in France, 1945–1979.” Committee: Profs. Joshua Cole (chair), Rita Chin, Adi Saleem, and Afshin Matin-Asgari. M.A. in History, June 2022 (2018–2026).
  • University of Wisconsin–Madison, Middle Eastern and Mediterranean Language Institute (MEDLI). Intermediate Persian (summer 2022).
  • University of California, Los Angeles. B.A. in History, cum laude with College Honors; minor in French (2013–2017).

Publications

Book Chapters

  • Heydari, Keanu. “L’exil politique, les carrières migratoires et l’Union des étudiants iraniens en France : Une étude de cas” (“Political Exile, Migratory Careers, and the Union of Iranian Students in France: A Case Study”). In L’exil iranien, la diversité d’un phénomène (Iranian Exile: The Diversity of a Phenomenon), edited by Nader Vahabi. Errances. Orizons, 2023.

Book Reviews

  • Heydari, Keanu. Review of Apocalypses in Context: Apocalyptic Currents Through History, 2nd ed., edited by Kelly J. Murphy and Justin Jeffcoat Schedtler. H-Environment, H-Net Reviews, forthcoming 2026.
  • Heydari, Keanu. Review of Repeating Revolutions: The French Revolution and the Algerian War, by Timothy Scott Johnson. Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture 25, no. 1 (2026).

Translations

Public-Facing Work

Honors and Awards

  • William Shorrock Travel Award, French Colonial Historical Society, 2024.
  • Classical Translations Contest (Middle East Studies), University of Michigan, 2023.
  • Rackham International Research Award, University of Michigan, 2023.
  • Rackham Language Training Grant, University of Michigan, 2020.
  • History Department Service Award, UCLA, 2017.

Invited Lectures

  • “Earth Day 2026: AI, Data Centers, and the Hidden Environmental Costs.” Michigan Friends Center, Chelsea, MI. April 25, 2026.
  • “The French Revolution: Human Rights and the Contradictions of Universalism.” Origins of the Modern World (Prof. Elena M. Rosario), Fairfield University [Zoom]. November 10, 2025.
  • “The European Union and Its Current Geopolitical Challenges.” History of European Integration (Prof. Dario Gaggio), University of Michigan. December 4, 2023.
  • “Religion, Collaboration, Resistance: Interpreting Religious Reactions to Nazism in Europe.” Europe in the Era of Total War (Prof. Kate Wroblewski), University of Michigan. December 6, 2022.

Conference Papers and Workshops

Papers Read at Academic Conferences and Symposia

  • “Making Barth Useful? American Reception and the Critique of Religion,” American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Denver, CO. November 23, 2026.
  • “Testimony Against the Grain: Surveillance, Knowledge Production, and Iranian Student Politics in Postwar France,” University College Dublin, Migration Beyond Emergency: Tracing Testimony and Diaspora Symposium. May 28, 2026 [Zoom].
  • “Licensing Dissent: Iranian Student Activism, Police Surveillance, and the Grammar of ‘Liberty’ in Postwar Paris, 1946–1979,” Society for French Historical Studies Annual Conference, Philadelphia, PA. March 7, 2026.
  • “Celibate Gay Christians, Tradwives, and Christian Nationalists: The Discursive Regime of Mandatory Heterosexuality in Contemporary American Evangelicalism,” American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, San Diego, CA. November 23, 2024.
  • “Constructing Diaspora Politics: The Case of Long-Distance Nationalism in Iranian Student Activism in France in the 1960s and 70s,” Social Science History Association Annual Conference, Toronto, Canada. November 2, 2024.
  • “A Secret Desire for Liberation: Iranian Student Radicals’ Imagination of France, National Liberation, and Artistic Development in the 1950s,” French Colonial Historical Society, Charlottesville, VA. May 23, 2024.
  • “Exit, Loyalty, Suffering: Iranian Student Political Activism and Masculinity in Postwar France,” Society for French Historical Studies Annual Conference, Hempstead, NY. March 15, 2024.
  • “Kharej az keshvar: The Psychic Afterlives of Diasporic Iranian Nostalgic Imaginaries in France,” Social Science History Association Annual Conference, Washington, D.C. November 18, 2023.
  • “Political Exile, Migratory Careers, and the Union of Iranian Students in France (U.E.I.F.) in the 1960s and 1970s,” Society for French Historical Studies and Western Society for French History Joint Annual Conference, Detroit, MI. March 18, 2023.
  • “Celibate Gay Christians: Vies singulières devenues d’étranges poèmes,” American Academy of Religion Annual Conference, Denver, CO. November 19, 2022.
  • “Persian Shah, Parisian Shah: Cultural Anxiety, Orientalism, and Militarization in Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar’s 1873 Visit to France,” Durham University Institute for Advanced Study, Modern Travel, Modern Landscapes: Connections and Exchanges in Europe, c. 1850–1950 Conference. July 6, 2022 [Zoom].

Workshops

  • “How Difference Becomes Political: Iranian Students in Postwar Paris and the Politics of Belonging,” University of Michigan History Inclusion Council event: Divergent Diversity: In Dialogue. March 13, 2026.
  • “Reimagining Exile: Decolonial Perspectives on Iranian Student Movements in France, 1945–1979,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies Workshop: Towards a Decolonial Methodology. April 4, 2025.
  • “Iranian Students in France in the Postwar Years,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies Workshop: The Consequences of Colonialism, Capitalism, and Empire: Looking Out from the Archive. November 17, 2023.
  • “Nostalgia, Diaspora, & Iranian Neo-Monarchists,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies Workshop: Violence, Witnessing, and Recovering the Archives. October 15, 2021.
  • “Persian Shah, Parisian Shah: Cultural Anxiety, Orientalism, and Militarization in Nasser al-Din Shah Qajar’s 1873 Visit to France,” University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies Workshop: Exploring Topographies: Real and Imaginary. April 2, 2021.

Research Experience

  • Graduate Student Researcher, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (winter 2023). Curated bibliographic data under Prof. Yi-Li Wu’s supervision for the forthcoming Cambridge History of Medicine series (vol. 5, Global Eighteenth-Century Medicine).
  • Graduate Student Researcher, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (spring/summer 2020). Established a bibliography of contemporary writing on affect, speed, mobility, and slowness under Prof. Helmut Puff’s supervision for his 2023 publication, The Antechamber: Toward a History of Waiting (Stanford University Press).
  • Graduate Student Researcher, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (winter 2019). Researched and contextualized primary sources under Profs. Jeffrey Veidlinger and Rita Chin’s supervision for a collaborative public-history project with the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, the digital collection “Everyday Encounters with Fascism.”

Teaching Experience

All courses taught at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Instructor of Record

  • History 195, “The Writing of History: Student Activism & Resistance.” Fall 2024, Winter 2026.

Graduate Student Instructor

  • History 322, “The Origins of Nazism” (Prof. Scott Spector). Winter 2024.
  • History 312, “History of European Integration” (Prof. Dario Gaggio). Fall 2023.
  • History 443 / Islam 443 / Mideast 487, “Modern Middle East History” (Prof. Juan Cole). Winter 2023.
  • History 314, “France and the World in the 20th Century” (Prof. Joshua Cole). Winter 2021.
  • History 318, “Europe in the Era of Total War” (Profs. Joshua Cole, Kate Wroblewski). Fall 2020, Fall 2022.
  • History 313 / French 344, “The Revolutionary Century” (Prof. Joshua Cole). Winter 2020.
  • History 386 / Judaic 386 / Germanic 391, “The Holocaust” (Prof. Jeffrey Veidlinger). Fall 2019.

Grader

  • History 240, “The World Since 1492” (Prof. Douglas Northrop). Summer 2025, Summer 2026.
  • History 340 / Mideast 340 / MENAS 340 / REES 340, “From Genghis Khan to the Taliban: Modern Central Asia” (Prof. Douglas Northrop). Summer 2025, Summer 2026.

Professional Development and Service

  • Graduate Partner, Sidney Fine Teaching Partnership (with Prof. Douglas Northrop), Department of History, University of Michigan (spring/summer 2026). Co-designed a new 300-level global history course, “Empire as a Modern System: Eurasia and the World in Comparative and Connective Perspective, 1750–Present,” drafting the syllabus, curating a primary-source packet, and designing a sequence of evidence-centered “sources labs.” Developed AI-aware assessment models and delivered a Canvas-ready course materials package for future offerings.
  • Environmental Storytelling Intern, The Ecology Center, Ann Arbor, Rackham Doctoral Intern Fellowship Program (winter 2025). Wrote public-facing feature stories, toolkits, and press materials; translated technical research into accessible language; contributed to digital communications planning and campaign strategy.
  • Graduate Student Instructional Consultant, Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (CRLT), University of Michigan (2022–2026). Conducted 50+ teaching observations and prepared pedagogical reports; advised on syllabus design and teaching statements; integrated equity-informed approaches into instructional development. Designed and facilitated graduate-instructor workshops: “Designing for Access: Integrating Accessibility into Everyday GSI Teaching” (May 12, 2026); “Planting the SEED: Structuring Equity, Engagement, and Discourse” (May 15, 2025); and “Critical Dialogue in Community: Navigating Moments of Friction, Tension, and Conflict as GSIs” (May 16, 2024).
  • Graduate Teacher Certificate (GTC), CRLT, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 2026.
  • Preparing Future Faculty (PFF) Seminar, Rackham Graduate School and CRLT, University of Michigan, May–June 2026.
  • Community Engaged Course Design Workshop (CECDW), Rackham Program in Public Scholarship and the Edward Ginsberg Center, winter 2026.

Editorial and Public Engagement

  • The New International. Editor and Translator.
  • Life Under the Word. Founder and author, theology blog.

Podcast Appearances

Professional Memberships

American Historical Association · Society for French Historical Studies · Society for the Study of French History · Western Society for French History · Association for Iranian Studies · Middle East Studies Association · French Colonial Historical Society · American Academy of Religion

Languages

English (native) · Persian (advanced; ACTFL certified) · French (advanced) · German (advanced) · Spanish (basic) · Arabic (basic)