*Find me on Medium, where I post exclusively on theological topics.
Nostalgia, Diaspora, & Iranian Neo-Monarchists: A Genealogical Exploration of Longing and Politics
This article examines how a segment of the Iranian diaspora—particularly those identifying with “neo-monarchist” ideals—employs nostalgia to mythologize Iran’s Pahlavi past and rally political support for restoring the monarchy. Drawing on theorists like Kathleen Stewart and Hamid Naficy, it demonstrates how nostalgia functions as a “cultural practice” that can distort history and spark reactionary political fervor. Through examples from Los Angeles (“Tehrangeles”), the January 6 Capitol attack, and social media groups praising the late Shah, the piece illustrates how idealized memories of imperial Iran galvanize newly established organizations like Iranian Americans for Liberty, which advocate a U.S.-backed overthrow of the Islamic Republic. Ultimately, it warns that such nostalgia can foster discord rather than unity, serving as a powerful yet potentially regressive political force within the diaspora.
Iranian Nationalism & Nostalgia: Fragment on a research interest
On 15 October 2021, I delivered a short presentation at the Eisenberg Institute for Historical Studies Workshop on “Violence, Witnessing, and Recovering the Archives” entitled, “Nostalgia, Diaspora, and Iranian Neo-Monarchists.” My talk focused on the political and cultural functions of nostalgia by a segment of the contemporary Iranian diaspora, particularly in the United States. In thinking here through nationalism and nostalgia in the American case, I hope to explore in my dissertation the ways in which memory was and is utilized, revised, and weaponized by the Iranian diaspora in France.
Workflows
I am sitting at my desk in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Some allege that summer has begun, but I’ve paid no mind to whispers that threaten the threads of tenacity remaining in my psyche to finish seminar papers, take language courses, do research, and prepare for the third year of a Ph.D. program in history at the University of Michigan. With two years behind me, I have a virtual ocean of books, articles, conference papers, dissertations, and lectures to read and review before my comprehensive exams at the end of the 2021 academic year. To my left, an unkempt pile of assiduously documented and extensive book notes brushes against my 2014 laptop—ancient now, according to Apple. With corners fraying, the pages of yellow legal paper are well worn—some are tattered.