In a small East Texas town, a girl named Kimberly feigned sickness to stay home from school. She watched a television docuseries about the history of the Soviet Union. Stories of the Tsar and Grigori Rasputin fascinated her.
Professor Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon would later earn a master’s degree in Regional Studies, specializing in Russia and Eastern Europe. In 2022, she became an informant on Brittney Griner’s release from Russian imprisonment. She is on track to become the second Black woman to ever earn a PhD in Soviet Russian History. She now teaches U.S. history at San Jacinto College.
St. Julian-Varnon first went viral for her Twitter commentary on the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2022 — a topic familiar to her, being one of the few Soviet historians to specialize in Ukrainian culture and history.
“I was just tweeting about things I knew about Ukrainian history, because people were talking about Ukraine … Every time there’s a war, suddenly everyone on the internet acts as if they are an expert. I wanted to help people understand this country that I’ve worked in; I’ve done research there. I wanted to help them understand Ukraine,” says St. Julian-Varnon.
Her Twitter following grew from 6,000 to 70,000 followers overnight. News networks contacted her for interviews. Using her newfound platform, she then found aid for Ukrainian refugees via social media.
“I think it’s important for historians or academics in particular (to share their knowledge),” St. Julian-Varnon stated, “we have to make our work accessible to regular people.”
Through Russian social media apps, she read of Brittney Griner’s imprisonment in Russia after the WNBA basketball player was found with an empty hashish oil vape cartridge. She was consulted for her expertise by the WNBA Players Association. Her studies on Black individuals in Russia were a powerful guide to those aiding Griner’s return.
“The importance of her case is that it helps us see that Russia has a very good understanding of American domestic issues and it uses it to its advantage,” expressed St. Julian-Varnon, “… her identities happened to be the very same identities that were … in the culture war with BLM, and with LGBTQIA+ movement.”
St. Julian-Varnon was featured on major news networks during this time, including VICE and MSNBC.
While St. Julian-Varnon pursues her PhD from the University of Pennsylvania remotely, she finds that teaching history at San Jacinto College remains her passion.
“I want my work to impact more than a small group of academics,” she remarked. “Most people don’t have PhDs, but they’re impacted by the work that we do. Policies shape the things you learn in school, the way community colleges work, and the way they’re funded. All this is influenced by people who have PhDs … but they impact you.”
St. Julian-Varnon emphasizes the importance of self-confidence and hard work, recounting her humble beginnings and how she didn’t allow it to hold her back.
“I’m from a Podunk, rural, poor area … I was meeting people (in college) whose parents had paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for them to go to private school … but eventually, I found my place and then I realized: just because you have more money than me, just because you grew up rich and I didn’t, doesn’t mean I can’t kick your butt in class. And I did,” says St. Julian-Varnon.
She urges her students to speak their minds, ask questions, and to never let their previous circumstances determine their future.
“No matter what space you go into, you should always use where you come from to fuel where you’re going. Never be ashamed of it.”
For more information on Professor St. J., visit https://www.kstjulianvarnon.com/.
