In 2014, when Kimberly St. Julian-Varnon earned a master’s degree in Russian studies from Harvard, she could count the number of Black Americans studying Russia and Eastern Europe on one hand. She felt isolated, and unsafe when she did field research.

But St. Julian-Varnon says history told from only one perspective is no history at all. So when she returned to Slavic studies in 2020 to start a PhD program at the University of Pennsylvania, just as protests over the murder of George Floyd were sweeping across the country, she also committed to making the field a place where more people “look like” her. 

I spoke to her about her research on Black Americans in the Soviet Union in the 1920s and 1930s, and about what systemic racism has to do with Russia today.  

This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.