Hello!
I’m Natasha Varner (she/her), a historian and writer with a deep commitment to producing public-facing scholarship. Since completing my PhD in history in 2016, I have worked outside the academy at a public history non-profit, as an independent journalist and essayist, facilitator, and consultant. My writing has appeared in Electric Literature, The Nation, Atlas Obscura, PRI’s The World, Jacobin, The Abusable Past, and Tropics of Meta. My book, La Raza Cosmética: Beauty, Identity, and Settler Colonialism in Postrevolutionary Mexico (University of Arizona Press, 2020), was a finalist for the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association's Best First Book Award in 2021.
Much of my work grapples with questions of how settler colonialism intersects with Indigenous displacement and dispossession, immigration, labor struggle, and constructs of race, class, gender, and identity. While my PhD and first book were in Mexican history, much of my current scholarship traffics in histories tied to the region I’ve lived in my entire life — the American West — and to topics that have closer connections to me and my ancestors, including critical explorations of my family’s complicity in the settler project.
When not chained to my computer, you can find me out in the woods, dabbling in some new art project, or pining after someone else’s dog. I live in Seattle but Arizona will always be home.
Professional Experience
Us@250 Fellow, New America, 2024/2025
As a member of New America's second cohort of Us@250 fellows, I’ll be reporting on the afterlife of Amache, Colorado’s WWll-era Japanese American concentration camp and its transition to becoming America's newest National Historic Site. This fellowship is an extension of my work as a community-engaged independent journalist and public historian. My research and interview techniques adhere to journalistic best practices and also draw from my educational background in archival research and ethnographic fieldwork.
Communications and Public Engagement Director, Densho, 2015-2024
I spearheaded efforts to make Densho’s vast archival collections accessible to the general public and supported Japanese American survivors and descendants of the WWII incarceration in telling their own stories. This included, among other things: co-producing short films and a podcast; leading our education program; organizing virtual and in-person panels and talks; starting an artist residency program; and by regularly distilling complex historical topics through accessible writing and visual aids across a range of digital media platforms. I also worked as part of the leadership team to steer the direction of this community history non-profit through a critical period of its growth, including the development of new initiatives, collaborations, partnerships, and transitions in executive leadership and board growth.
Publicity Manager, University of Washington Press, 2013-2015
Managed publicity program for the University of Washington Press, including media (arrange publicity calls, book reviews, author interviews), book events, awards submissions, and managing the Press’s online social media presence. I worked directly with authors, press staff, and members of the community to communicate the Press’s mission and supervised student workers, freelancers, and interns in order to plan and execute publicity program.
Program Coordinator, First Peoples: New Directions in Indigenous Studies, 2009-2013
Oversaw the creation and operations of First Peoples, an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-funded publishing collaboration between four university presses aimed at supporting Indigenous studies scholarship and publications by first-time authors. Organized workshops, mentored graduate students and junior faculty, and met with authors at up to ten academic conferences per year. Assisted acquisitions editors at the four member presses – University of North Carolina Press, University of Minnesota Press, University of Oregon Press, and University of Arizona Press – in acquiring new projects and tracking new directors in the field of Indigenous studies. Managed the project budget, board, contractors, and digital media presence.
EDUCATIONAL EXPERIENCE
Ph.D. History, University of Arizona, 2016
Dissertation: La Raza Cosmética: Beauty, Race, and Indigeneity in Revolutionary Mexico
M.A. Latin American Studies, University of Arizona, 2009
Thesis: Beyond Pueblos Mágicos: Indigeneity in National Identity and Cultural Tourism Initiatives in Mexico
B.A. Anthropology, summa cum laude Northern Arizona University, 2003
Minors: Linguistics, American Indian studies