Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon
@ksvarnon.bsky.social
Historian of Russia, Ukraine, the USSR, and East Germany.
Writer and Commentator.
Texan. Former K-12 teacher and Community College History Instructor.
Perpetually behind PhD Candidate.
Writer and Commentator.
Texan. Former K-12 teacher and Community College History Instructor.
Perpetually behind PhD Candidate.
Pinned
I'm seeing more followers, so I'll introduce myself. I'm a PhD Candidate at the University of Pennsylvania, writing a history of Blackness in the Soviet Union and East Germany. I'm a regional expert on Russia and Ukraine post-Cold War, particularly issues of racism, nationalism, and foreign policy.
Reposted by Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon
Can you believe this? The American Battle Monuments Commission, a U.S. gov. agency, ordered the removal of displays honouring the Black soldiers who helped liberate the Netherlands. These men fought & died for freedom, & now their contributions are being erased. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
A Dutch war cemetery added displays showing black US soldiers. Then they were quietly removed
Relatives fear the move is part of ‘the same virus affecting the US’, as historians and politicians say it coincided with Trump’s DEI purge
www.theguardian.com
November 12, 2025 at 12:41 AM
Can you believe this? The American Battle Monuments Commission, a U.S. gov. agency, ordered the removal of displays honouring the Black soldiers who helped liberate the Netherlands. These men fought & died for freedom, & now their contributions are being erased. www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
I've been saying this for ages now. None of this is unprecedented if you are familiar with African American and Southern history (or the history of any minority group in this country).
Authoritarian governments are not new to this country. If you want to know what comes next should resistance fail, look to the history of Black resistance in the South.
calendar.eji.org/racial-injus...
calendar.eji.org/racial-injus...
Nov. 13, 1957 | Texas Officials Threaten and Jail NAACP Officers for Not Disclosing Members
Learn more about our history of racial injustice.
calendar.eji.org
November 11, 2025 at 7:39 PM
I've been saying this for ages now. None of this is unprecedented if you are familiar with African American and Southern history (or the history of any minority group in this country).
Reaching into the depths of my southernness to say, Senate Dems, Y'all ain't got no fight in you. Learned nothing. People went hungry; ATC were attacked and unpaid, and for what? Capitulation and a dedicated vote to a proposition you know you are going to lose. These are not serious people.
November 10, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Reaching into the depths of my southernness to say, Senate Dems, Y'all ain't got no fight in you. Learned nothing. People went hungry; ATC were attacked and unpaid, and for what? Capitulation and a dedicated vote to a proposition you know you are going to lose. These are not serious people.
The Senate Dems have reached Tsar Nicholas II levels of political ineptitude. I don't believe for a second only the 'eight' moved to vote on this. How do they do that without Schumer's backing? LBJ (Senate Minority & Majority Leader before President) is rolling in his grave with this fecklessness.
November 10, 2025 at 5:09 PM
The Senate Dems have reached Tsar Nicholas II levels of political ineptitude. I don't believe for a second only the 'eight' moved to vote on this. How do they do that without Schumer's backing? LBJ (Senate Minority & Majority Leader before President) is rolling in his grave with this fecklessness.
I read about those two families from Texas (incl down the road from where I grew up) who moved to Russia. I've been saying for years that Russia is Janus-like in its foreign PR. It acts like a land of white civilization for white Americans/Europeans and like a decolonization beacon for Africans.
November 3, 2025 at 9:10 PM
I read about those two families from Texas (incl down the road from where I grew up) who moved to Russia. I've been saying for years that Russia is Janus-like in its foreign PR. It acts like a land of white civilization for white Americans/Europeans and like a decolonization beacon for Africans.
Many families & individuals face SNAP benefit cuts (read: are being starved) in November. Please donate to your local food banks. Money generally goes further than donated food because food banks can purchase in bulk.
www.houstonfoodbank.org
imgh.org/imhouston-me...
www.houstonfoodbank.org
imgh.org/imhouston-me...
Houston Food Bank: Donate – Volunteer – Find Help
The Houston Food Bank provides food for better lives in 18 counties in southeast Texas through our 1,500 community partners.
www.houstonfoodbank.org
October 27, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Many families & individuals face SNAP benefit cuts (read: are being starved) in November. Please donate to your local food banks. Money generally goes further than donated food because food banks can purchase in bulk.
www.houstonfoodbank.org
imgh.org/imhouston-me...
www.houstonfoodbank.org
imgh.org/imhouston-me...
So, that serial woman abuser running for NYC mayor really posted a video of Mamdani eating rice with his hands and a Black pimp a la Dolemite?! I'm so tired of this timeline.
October 23, 2025 at 12:54 AM
So, that serial woman abuser running for NYC mayor really posted a video of Mamdani eating rice with his hands and a Black pimp a la Dolemite?! I'm so tired of this timeline.
A lot of *that* discourse reveals why Claude McKay said what he did at the 4th Comintern re: the issue with racism in the CPUSA and Black Americans' resistance to the party.
October 22, 2025 at 2:08 AM
A lot of *that* discourse reveals why Claude McKay said what he did at the 4th Comintern re: the issue with racism in the CPUSA and Black Americans' resistance to the party.
I don't have any words. I'm floored. And if Harvard does this to cut costs, what hope do other PhD programs at schools w/out multi-billion dollar endowments have?
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 21, 2025 at 8:08 PM
I don't have any words. I'm floored. And if Harvard does this to cut costs, what hope do other PhD programs at schools w/out multi-billion dollar endowments have?
In general, one should never get a skull tattoo while drunk in Croatia, or Serbia, or Bulgaria...Such a strange time to have deep knowledge of Eastern European history. (I know nothing about Platner, but I do know a bit about Croatian WWII history...).
October 21, 2025 at 7:58 PM
In general, one should never get a skull tattoo while drunk in Croatia, or Serbia, or Bulgaria...Such a strange time to have deep knowledge of Eastern European history. (I know nothing about Platner, but I do know a bit about Croatian WWII history...).
Reposted by Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon
If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.
CFP: A Time of Monsters
The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...
contingentmagazine.org
October 5, 2025 at 9:41 PM
If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.
Reposted by Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon
This is an absolutely terrific piece from @texastribune.org and reinforces my belief that the best coverage of right-wing cancelations occur at the local level, after years of the national media focusing on threats from the left.
www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/t...
www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/t...
How a secret recording of a gender identity lecture upended Texas A&M
Officials have struggled to detail the exact reasons for the A&M professor’s termination, citing a technical issue with her course description. Faculty say the move was politically motivated.
www.texastribune.org
September 23, 2025 at 4:31 PM
This is an absolutely terrific piece from @texastribune.org and reinforces my belief that the best coverage of right-wing cancelations occur at the local level, after years of the national media focusing on threats from the left.
www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/t...
www.texastribune.org/2025/09/19/t...
What, exactly, is happening in Oklahoma? Isn't this man under investigation for watching pornography during a State Board of Education meeting? Has he ever taught school? Isn't Oklahoma recruiting teachers from abroad due to shortages? This is performative and fixes nothing. He knows that.
September 23, 2025 at 9:21 PM
What, exactly, is happening in Oklahoma? Isn't this man under investigation for watching pornography during a State Board of Education meeting? Has he ever taught school? Isn't Oklahoma recruiting teachers from abroad due to shortages? This is performative and fixes nothing. He knows that.
Impotrant reporting, although I loathe the name "Alligator Alcatraz." Seems like a terrible way to normalize kidnapping and camps.
More than 1800 detainees are missing after the closure of Alligator Alcatraz. Their families and lawyers can’t find them and they’ve vanished from the ICE database. Feels like this should be a much bigger story www.miamiherald.com/news/local/i...
Hundreds of Alligator Alcatraz detainees drop off the grid after leaving site
As of the end of August, the whereabouts of two-thirds of more than 1,800 men detained at Alligator Alcatraz during the month of July could not be determined by the Miami Herald.
www.miamiherald.com
September 23, 2025 at 9:07 PM
Impotrant reporting, although I loathe the name "Alligator Alcatraz." Seems like a terrible way to normalize kidnapping and camps.
Zelenskyy also met with Tokayev today. I think the US deals with Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan play a role in Trump's about-face on Ukraine today. But, as usual, this administration is too mercurial for Ukraine and its allies to let their guards down. Social media isn't equal to weaponry on the ground.
September 23, 2025 at 8:53 PM
Zelenskyy also met with Tokayev today. I think the US deals with Kazakhstan & Uzbekistan play a role in Trump's about-face on Ukraine today. But, as usual, this administration is too mercurial for Ukraine and its allies to let their guards down. Social media isn't equal to weaponry on the ground.
Many of the federal troops who massacred Native American women, children, and unarmed men at Wounded Knee received Medals of Honor. As I have said before, these are not unprecedented actions. Their precedents are erased history.
August 29, 2025 at 1:51 PM
Many of the federal troops who massacred Native American women, children, and unarmed men at Wounded Knee received Medals of Honor. As I have said before, these are not unprecedented actions. Their precedents are erased history.
The discourse around Ostapenko being racist and rude to Taylor Townsend is fascinating. This issue is literally my research. We see, once again, the "racism doesn't exist in Latvia" excuse. Racism exists in the Baltics just like the rest of Eastern Europe. 1/
August 28, 2025 at 11:26 PM
The discourse around Ostapenko being racist and rude to Taylor Townsend is fascinating. This issue is literally my research. We see, once again, the "racism doesn't exist in Latvia" excuse. Racism exists in the Baltics just like the rest of Eastern Europe. 1/
Seeing more job postings in various fields (European history, East Asian history, etc.) that are 'encouraging' people who focus on the history of science, technology, medicine, to apply. Feels like this is the new way to hire people who research 'safe' topics. Don't think it'll save us.
August 18, 2025 at 11:09 PM
Seeing more job postings in various fields (European history, East Asian history, etc.) that are 'encouraging' people who focus on the history of science, technology, medicine, to apply. Feels like this is the new way to hire people who research 'safe' topics. Don't think it'll save us.
As negotiations between Russia and the US loom this week, it is important that we all understand what is at stake. I am one of the experts interviewed about the significance of Crimea to both Ukraine and Russia. @theworld.org
theworld.org/stories/2025...
theworld.org/stories/2025...
In negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, Crimea’s status is a red line that neither side will cross - The World from PRX
Ukraine and Russia have exchanged accusations while also expressing a willingness to negotiate a ceasefire. Meanwhile, any talks of concessions regarding Crimea remain a non-starter for both.
theworld.org
August 12, 2025 at 2:59 PM
As negotiations between Russia and the US loom this week, it is important that we all understand what is at stake. I am one of the experts interviewed about the significance of Crimea to both Ukraine and Russia. @theworld.org
theworld.org/stories/2025...
theworld.org/stories/2025...
It is always a privilege to share my expertise with the public. I am one of the experts quoted in this piece on the experience of Black people, including African Americans, Africans, and Afro-Russians, in Russia today.
kyivindependent.com/what-its-rea...
kyivindependent.com/what-its-rea...
What it’s really like being Black in Russia
After facing police discrimination as a Black woman in the U.S., Francine Villa decided to return to her birth country, Russia, in 2019, searching for the safety America had denied her.
A year later,...
kyivindependent.com
August 8, 2025 at 2:42 PM
It is always a privilege to share my expertise with the public. I am one of the experts quoted in this piece on the experience of Black people, including African Americans, Africans, and Afro-Russians, in Russia today.
kyivindependent.com/what-its-rea...
kyivindependent.com/what-its-rea...
Forget the shopping cart theory, I have the buying elementary school supplies theory.
August 7, 2025 at 10:35 PM
Forget the shopping cart theory, I have the buying elementary school supplies theory.
Reposted by Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon
Stealing text from books written by PhDs and using probability-based algorithms to scramble that text up to make answers that *sound* *like* a person with a PhD answered them is not in fact PhD-level intelligence or expertise. It does tell us something about the people selling and using this slop
OpenAI releases the newest version of the AI model that powers its popular ChatGPT chatbot, with CEO Sam Altman promoting it as like having a “team of Ph.D. level experts in your pocket.”
OpenAI releases GPT-5, calling it a ‘team of Ph.D. level experts in your pocket’
OpenAI says its latest version of the popular AI model is better at coding, more accurate and less deceptive than previous versions.
nbcnews.to
August 7, 2025 at 8:03 PM
Stealing text from books written by PhDs and using probability-based algorithms to scramble that text up to make answers that *sound* *like* a person with a PhD answered them is not in fact PhD-level intelligence or expertise. It does tell us something about the people selling and using this slop
I see this after the premier professional organization of my discipline releases its "AI guidelines" that undermine the entire practice of teaching critical thinking, reading, and writing. You know, the entire point of what we do. Bleak doesn't even begin to describe this.
help my job says i have to do my job what do i do help
August 5, 2025 at 7:54 PM
I see this after the premier professional organization of my discipline releases its "AI guidelines" that undermine the entire practice of teaching critical thinking, reading, and writing. You know, the entire point of what we do. Bleak doesn't even begin to describe this.
My dissertation has pushed me into Cold War-era Soviet history, but my passion and training since undergrad is Stalinism. I've seen this movie before, though the US is doing a shorter timeline. We are nearing Shakhty. I am wondering who will be named the 'wreckers,' and if they will need a Kirov.
August 4, 2025 at 10:51 PM
My dissertation has pushed me into Cold War-era Soviet history, but my passion and training since undergrad is Stalinism. I've seen this movie before, though the US is doing a shorter timeline. We are nearing Shakhty. I am wondering who will be named the 'wreckers,' and if they will need a Kirov.
Reposted by Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon
Before you see a hundred or so posts saying that Texas has issued arrest warrants for the absent Dem legislators, you should be aware that they are civil warrants issued by the House that are not effective outside the state
www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/t...
www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/t...
August 4, 2025 at 8:42 PM
Before you see a hundred or so posts saying that Texas has issued arrest warrants for the absent Dem legislators, you should be aware that they are civil warrants issued by the House that are not effective outside the state
www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/t...
www.texastribune.org/2025/08/04/t...