Intentionally Iranian: Belonging, the Iranian Monolith, and Solidarities within the Iranian Diaspora in Colorado

Natanzi, Rumi M

Undergraduate Honors Thesis

Intentionally Iranian: Belonging, the Iranian Monolith, and Solidarities within the Iranian Diaspora in Colorado Public Deposited

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Citeable URL: https://scholar.colorado.edu/concern/undergraduate_honors_theses/mk61rj50v

Abstract

The Iranian diaspora is a diverse, intricate, and burgeoning demographic consisting of individuals from a plethora of religious, ethnic, racial, and gender identities. Analyses of the Iranian diaspora thus far tend to focus on visibly large populations of Iranians primarily found in European countries like Germany, and larger cities in the United States such as Los Angeles, Washington D.C (along with the Maryland and Virginia areas), and Texas. Studies of the Iranian diaspora in places with less prominent physical markers are not as readily researched. This thesis seeks to disrupt that status by examining the Iranian diaspora present in Colorado, primarily the Boulder and closely surrounding areas. Posited more specifically: how do space and place influence, support, and transform semblances of belonging, conceptions of an Iranian monolith, and solidarity measures within the Iranian diaspora in Colorado? Through eight in depth, semi-structured, qualitative interviews with members of the diaspora who have either lived or currently live in Boulder or nearby areas, the question of intentionally enacting aspects of one’s Iranian identity is explored within the context of spatial realities. By drawing on formative frameworks from scholars and knowledge keepers on race, intersectionality, and the Iranian diaspora, the liminal nature of Iranians in Colorado— within the diaspora as a whole, themselves, and the surrounding society—is asserted as relating significantly to understanding identity, belonging, and formation within this populace. As the premiere study on Iranians in Colorado, this exploration seeks to amplify the experiences and perspectives of this demographic and illuminate key relationships between spatiality and personhood integral in the furthering of multifaceted disciplines such as Iranian diasporic studies in intersectional, critical ways.

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