iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Philly-area folks: I’ll be in town around Oct. 14 and have room for a paid speaking engagement! I speak on cultural heritage, identity, memory & belonging—Rusyn history, religion, adoption, genealogy, Holocaust memory & more. I’d love to connect with organizations looking for a speaker.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Well, it’s been a minute! 😂 For old friends & new faces, hi! I’m Karen, a historian, musicologist, and cultural memory speaker. Usually found digging through archives, exploring my roots and adoption story, or chasing overlooked histories. Looking forward to reconnecting & meeting new people here!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 02/12/2025

In the Terezín ghetto, music became resistance. Help us keep that courage alive this Giving Tuesday: 🔗 secure.givelively.org/donate/defia... NJ friends: see Defiant Requiem Thursday in Margate: 🔗 www.jccatlantic.org/event/defian...

secure.givelively.org

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 25/10/2025

For anyone interested I am still accepting genealogy clients! Would love to help others find their roots and their beginnings the way I’ve been lucky enough to find mine. Feel free to message me here as well if interested or pass on to others who may be interested!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 08/09/2025

Music friends! Below is info for our fall meeting of the AMS Capital Chapter. Deadline will probably be extended so ignore that. But please submit and encourage others as well! This CFP also especially goes out to my friends from the former AMS Mid-Atlantic chapter! www.ams-net.org/chapters/cap...

ams-net.org

Meetings – AMS Capital Chapter

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 11/08/2025

What’s happening in DC right now, just minutes away from where I work and less than 30 min from where I live, is appalling. Violent crime is at an all time low. You know what is at an all time high? Hate crimes. Crimes based ln religious hatred. And make no mistake, the statistics are clear.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 17/07/2025

For anyone in the DMV, tonight we are showing of our Defiant Requiem documentary at St John the Baptist Church in Silver Spring! This will be followed by an interfaith discussion. Many thanks to Father Andrew Wakefield for this beautiful letter he put in the church bulletin these past 2 weeks!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 25/06/2025

Hi everyone! Due to being asked by several people about genealogy work, especially in relation to dual citizenship, I consolidated my info into a flier here. Feel free to message me on here if you are interested in finding out family history info!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 13/06/2025

Today was my last day after an amazing weeklong seminar on Christianity in East Central Europe during the Holocaust. The irony that I was literally fenced in at the Holocaust Museum in DC today was not lost on me.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 09/06/2025

Congratulations to all of the winners at tonight’s Tony Awards! An amazing Broadway season and so excited for Broadway’s future!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 10/05/2025

My favorite day of the year in DC: EU Embassy Open House Day! The lines are already starting, and I can’t wait to embassy hop and visit friends and get some great food, drinks, and culture!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 08/05/2025

This literally is the best thing I have seen all morning! Love me some Rick Astley!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 27/04/2025

Pope Francis’s funeral took me back 25 years, when at age 17 I stood on the steps of the Vatican to sing for the beatification of the Blessed Martyrs of Nowogrodek with Pope JPII presiding. This is what 250k people looks like; it is overwhelming and unlike anything I have ever experienced.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 26/04/2025

Did I get up at 3am to watch the funeral for Pope Francis? Absolutely. It was a beautiful service, and as a Byzantine Ruthenian Catholic I loved seeing the Eastern Churches give their own prayers and blessings.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 24/03/2025

I am a Musicologist & Central/Eastern European historian. Yet somehow I feel like for my current work on Catholic victims of the Holocaust I need degrees in theology, philosophy, politics, psychology, and religious studies. Side note, if anyone is an expert on the theology of martyrdom message me!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 03/03/2025

23 years ago, I sat in my dorm room at Muhlenberg College as Adrien Brody got the Oscar for The Pianist. 23 years later, with a career in Holocaust Studies, seeing Adrien get another Oscar for another brilliant story of a Holocaust survivor, it is amazing what a journey it has been.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 02/03/2025

Not that I think any of my circle would expect anything less, but as an Eastern European historian, as someone whose Eastern European ancestors were put under tyranny and ethnic cleansing, I will ALWAYS stand for democracy, for freedom, and with those being oppressed. Slava Ukraini!

media.tenor.com

a poster that says stand with ukraine with a heart in the middle

ALT: a poster that says stand with ukraine with a heart in the middle

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 26/02/2025

Anyone else just feeling exhausted and burnt out with just…everything? I am just TIRED. And yes I will get the energy to fight another day but today I need to just sit in this being exhausted and tired and rail at the world.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 14/02/2025

I can’t be at the parade but I got my NFC championship shirt on and I’m repping my Birds in DC. GO @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social!!!!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

It’s times like these I miss my hometown, but I am celebrating our SUPERBOWL CHAMPIONSHIP here in DC. Such an amazing win @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social, so insanely proud of you for brining that Lombardi back where it belongs!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 09/02/2025

Today is the day! FLY EAGLES FLY BABY LET’S WIN THIS THING! My beloved hometown has been through it this past week. This one is for the city, and for our boys, who deserve it all. One more game. Just one more. Let’s go show everyone what we are made of @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 08/02/2025

We got one more boys. Let’s show all the doubters that you mess with Philly at your peril. Make this the most physically punishing game of the season. Let’s have that green and white confetti converting NOLA. GO BIRDS! #PhillyGirlinDC #SportsLovinAcademic

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 23/01/2025

Nothing brightens my day more than seeing Philly people in DC with Eagles gear (or any Philly sports team gear!) on. When Philly people see each other outside of our native city, it is an automatic bonding experience. So to all my fellow Philly people in DC…GO BIRDS! 🦅🦅

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 19/01/2025

Come on @philadelphiaeagles.bsky.social let’s bring this NFC Championship home to the Linc where it belongs! Let’s win this thing! GO BIRDS! #FlyEaglesFly🦅 #PhillyGirlinDC #SportsLovinAcademic

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

My great great grandfather came to Northeastern PA and my family settled there and then eventually to suburban Philadelphia (where my birth father grew up). I am still trying to see if I can find a baptism record for my great great grandfather Johannes Gula in any records from Cisowiec.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

These are great resources! My family name from Poland was Gula (or Guła) and from Slovakia’s Prešov region was Karas.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

I only know very little about Cisowiec but am hoping I can learn more!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

In Poland my family is from Cisowiec

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 05/01/2025

That’s the same area my family is from 😊

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 01/01/2025

Wishing everyone a 2025 full of love, peace, strength, and an incredible year that all your dreams come true ❤️

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 24/12/2024

Whatever you celebrate, I wish you a beautiful holiday, love, peace and joy!

media.tenor.com

New Year Kwanzaa GIF

ALT: New Year Kwanzaa GIF

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

It is still unreal to me to be at a meeting, as an adoptee, that literally has a society for my biological heritage. My paternal side is Ruthenian/Lemko from Poland and Slovakia. But to be able to come to my academic conference and be with the Carpatho-Rusyn Society is really special. #ASEEES24

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

LOLOL there’s a LOT of redheads here…

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

I’m already two coffees in, I have 6 languages running through my head, and there’s a whole lot of people who share my biological background. That is an amazing thing to me to get access to. Welcome to #ASEEES24!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

Looking forward to #ASEEES24! If anyone will be at the conference and wants to meet up let me know, I’d love to see people!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

So I guess everyone is doing intros? So hi! I’m Karen, & my PhD is in Musicology/Central & Eastern European Studies with specialties in Jewish & Holocaust/Genocide Studies. I’m Director of Research for the Defiant Requiem Foundation, a university professor, genealogist & Philly sports lover!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

I’m the former chair of the Jewish Music Studies Group & have worked extensively over the years with the people who created the panel. I absolutely knew about the panel and its aims, which is specifically about music and joy as resistance to trauma. Which can be applied across lines to many groups.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 16/11/2024

Calling someone who practices Judaism and has been a Music and Holocaust scholar for almost 30 years someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about is bad & peak mansplaining. And considering Hamas is a terrorist group I think comparing them to the Nazis is completely warranted.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

One step further: you throw antisemitic comments at my Jewish friends and colleagues, I will defend them with everything I have. My colleagues are not the Israeli government. NO ONE gets to make them feel disrespected or unsafe.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

A) I need everyone to not use the term genocide unless you actually know what it means. B) You come after my friends and colleagues disrespectfully, you get all the Philly Jersey girl rebel academic I have in me. To my colleagues and friends upset by some recent comments: I got you ❤️

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

So are we supposed to ignore Jewish suffering or finding joy? or There is also a lack of papers on Muslim/Islam music. As a Music/Holocaust & Genocide scholar, I am going to call this what it is: antisemitic. Equating of Jewish with Palestinian perspectives is a problematic false dichotomy.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

Tell me about it…if you are in DC let me know if you want to get together and commiserate/compare stories!

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

For anyone on here who will be at #AMS24 in Chicago, the Defiant Requiem Foundation has a whole new University Residency Program as well as other opportunities to collaborate! Check out the website (www.defiantrequiem.org/the-universi...) and let me know if you want to meet in Chicago!

defiantrequiem.org

Defiant Requiem – The University Residency Project

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 09/11/2024

Can I get just one day where something isn’t on fire?! Heartbroken over the events in Amsterdam, a city I adore and have family history in. 💔 Sending love to my Jewish friends & family.

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Dr. Karen L. Uslin @drklu.bsky.social · 21/09/2024

We are back in the playoffs! Let’s go boys and bring it home!!! Also I am warning any of my musicology friends who are on here if the Phillies go all the way I WILL be insufferable in Chicago this year repping my hometown!

media.tenor.com

a man with a beard is wearing a red hat and says red october .

ALT: a man with a beard is wearing a red hat and says red october .

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