Keanu Heydari joined the Ecology Center in Fall 2025 as the Environmental Storyteller Fellow under the Rackham Doctoral Internship Program at the University of Michigan. He is a Ph.D. candidate in the Department of History, where his dissertation, "Iranian Student Radicalism in France, 1945–1979," explores how Iranian student activists mobilized against authoritarianism and imperialism, drawing on human rights discourse to shape global conversations on justice and political change.
Keanu brings extensive experience in research-based storytelling, teaching, and public engagement. At the University of Michigan, he has designed and taught courses on student activism and resistance, instructed over 400 undergraduates across eight courses as a Graduate Student Instructor, and served as a Graduate Student Instructional Consultant at the Center for Research on Learning and Teaching, where he helped faculty and graduate instructors refine their communication strategies for diverse audiences. He has also co-coordinated scholarly workshops in European History and Migration & Displacement, organizing events that bridged academic research with public discourse .
Fluent in English, Farsi, and French, with proficiency in German, Keanu has conducted archival research across multiple languages and contributed to collaborative projects such as the Cambridge History of Medicine and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Experiencing History digital platform. He has published academic articles in French. His work consistently emphasizes making complex histories and urgent issues accessible to broad publics.
At the Ecology Center, Keanu applies his background in storytelling and communication to support advocacy campaigns, digital content, and public-facing narratives that highlight the intersections of justice, health, and environmental sustainability. He is especially interested in how compelling stories can build movements, inspire action, and connect communities to the work of environmental justice.