How can global perspectives, particularly from the Global South, deepen and complicate contemporary discussions on ethics, epistemology, and learning in STEM fields? In this paper we explore the politicization processes of engineering students at Aryamehr University of Technology (AUT), widely considered to be the most prestigious technical institution in Iran. In the historical period under examination (1967-1979), AUT was the site of a unique experiment in Iranianizing and Islamizing the university, as well as the site of a highly radical student movement. Drawing on an extensive archival catalogue, and seven hours of interview conducted with an alumni, we use critical fabulation as a method to construct three revelatory scenes of learning that make visible the dynamic interplay between learning and political identity for engineering students at AUT. We demonstrate that politicization is fundamentally a process of learning, and examine how students’ academic and political identities co-emerge through learning processes.