Rooms I Still Walk Through

Date of Award

Spring 2026

Abstract

This collection of non-fiction essays traces my journey as an Iranian citizen through exile, political awakening, and personal transformation, mapping the relationship between individual experience and national identity. Organized into three chapters, the work moves from personal to political and back to personal: the first explores nostalgia and memories of childhood in Iran as they resurface through the lens of exile. The second examines the political uprising for Iran’s liberation, focusing on lived experiences and the sacrifices of dissidents during the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and the Lion and Sun Revolution. The third returns to the narrator’s present life abroad, portraying growth, adaptation, and the search for belonging in a free society. By placing political reality between reflections on past and present, the collection reveals how exile reshapes memory, identity, and the meaning of home.

Document Type

Master's Thesis

First Advisor

Sue Hertz

Second Advisor

Jaed Coffin

Third Advisor

Krista Jackman

Department or Program

English

Degree Name

Master of Fine Arts

This document is currently not available here.

Share

COinS