Keanu Heydari was born and raised in Los Angeles, California. He is a seventh-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 explores 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 argues that politically engaged, secular Iranian students in Paris played a crucial role in challenging the authoritarian rule of Mohammad Reza Pahlavi by drawing international attention to human rights violations in Iran.

Beyond his work on Iranian student activism, Heydari is interested in modern European intellectual history, particularly the contributions of Michel Foucault (power-knowledge and discourse), Jacques Lacan (psychoanalysis), Jean-François Lyotard (postmodern justice), and Étienne Balibar (critiques of liberalism and the nation-state).

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