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Christina Thompson

@cathomps.bsky.social
247 followers 259 following 38 posts

Editor, HARVARD REVIEW; author, SEA PEOPLE and COME ON SHORE. Writing about the history of the Pacific.

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Reposted by Christina Thompson
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 19/08/2026
Harvard announced that it is closing its writing center and laying off the center’s longtime director—a decision that could have repercussions far beyond Cambridge, Tyler Austin Harper argues.
bit.ly
Why the Closing of Harvard’s Writing Center Matters
Students, faculty members, and alumni are asking how seriously the school is taking human learning in the age of AI.
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Can I just say that there is something quite incoherent in the fact that Harvard just fired the very person who—last year—was asked to write the AI literacy curriculum that is now required for all Harvard first-year students. Is this person valued? Or not? @harvard.edu #harvardwritingcenter
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Harvard Writing Tutors school the administration. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
thecrimson.com
In Defense of the Harvard College Writing Center | Opinion | The Harvard Crimson
As current and former Harvard College Writing Center tutors, we write to condemn the dissolution of the Writing Center as an independent entity and the laying off of its director, Jane Rosenzweig.
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Marcus Luther @marcusluther.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Read through this. Then think of the signal Harvard is sending.
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Deidre Lynch @drbibliomane.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
This is the remarkable thinker & teacher whose Harvard role was just terminated--profiled in Harvard Magazine only 18 months ago. What is happening at the College this summer is awful (as with last summer, when the Women's Center was closed out of the blue). 🤯 www.harvardmagazine.com/2025/01/harv...
harvardmagazine.com
Harvard Writing Center’s Jane Rosenzweig on AI and Writing | Harvard Magazine
Harvard Writing Center’s Jane Rosenzweig on AI and writing
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Brett Vogelsinger @thevogelman.bsky.social · 29/07/2026
Reading these comments are worth your time. Upsetting to learn today that Harvard is dismantling its Writing Center and is laying off Jane Rosenzweig, its long-time director. Student voices here show what is lost in a move like this, and what an institution gains in a well led writing center.
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Mary Lewis @profmarylewis.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
It‘s quite possible that with this move, @harvard.edu could become the only Ivy League university without a writing center. www.thecrimson.com/article/2026...
thecrimson.com
Harvard College Lays Off Writing Center Director, Consolidates Center | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Harvard College Writing Center will no longer operate as a standalone unit after its director was laid off and its functions were consolidated as part of a restructuring in the Faculty of Arts and...
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Jordan Jensen @notajetson.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
Sea People by Christina Thompson Amazing insight into the history of Polynesia and the study of that history from the arrival of the Endeavor to modern times. Its awesome to imagine and understand the great Voyagers' paths across the Pacific #booksky 💡📚
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
New review up at the TLS on the little-known story of Katherine Routledge’s early 20th c. expedition to Easter Island. www.the-tls.com/history/isla...
the-tls.com
How Easter Island was cut off from its past
Over the course of three centuries, the inhabitants of Easter Island, or Rapa Nui, carved, transported and erected about 400 stone statues, the largest of
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 07/05/2026
This is the literary Venn diagram of my new project. No wonder I am having trouble communicating what it’s about….
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 14/04/2026
"The principal purpose of what has passed for humanities education has been to convince students that the humanistic tradition is not what they think it is. . . .They are being rushed straight from ignorance to contempt." www.chronicle.com/article/how-...
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 31/03/2026
$50 to fill up an ordinary sedan today and it wasn’t quite empty and it’s not quite full 😳
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
sam³⁰⁰⁰ @samgavin.com · 29/03/2026
A remarkable photo from #NoKings in DTLA from Connor Sheets of @latimes.com www.latimes.com/california/l...
LAPD officers arrest a protester dressed as the Statue of Liberty outside a federal building during a ‘Kings Day’ protest. (Connor Sheets/Los Angeles Times)
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
Thank you Cold Spring Harbor Whaling Museum for hosting a book club session on Sea People (May 27) 😎 🗿🏝️⚓️ www.cshwhalingmuseum.org/bookclub.html
cshwhalingmuseum.org
Beyond the Book with The Whaling Museum
Thematic Bookclub
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 04/03/2026
“Scholars should learn how to speak in different registers about what they do, and their employers should reward it.” Actually, they should have done that 30 years ago. www.chronicle.com/article/crit...
chronicle.com
Opinion | Critics Are Doing Colleges a Favor
Attacks from outside can spur positive change within.
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 27/02/2026
Spent my birthday rereading this treasure. Glyn Williams was a wonderful historian.
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 17/02/2026
I mean, what do I know? But this feels like a voice of reason www.bloomberg.com/opinion/arti...
bloomberg.com
Wall Street’s Doom-Mongering on Software Is Bizarre
Just four paragraphs on the website of Anthropic PBC were enough to spark a $300 billion stock rout. A Jefferies analyst called it the “SaaSpocalypse,” a run on the shares of specialized software comp...
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
"The iterative process of confusion, endurance, and incremental understanding is what literature professors teach when they assign whole books. This march toward understanding doesn’t have a great name other than READING." www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
theatlantic.com
Stop Meeting Students Where They Are
What I learned when I finally started assigning the hard reading again.
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Andrew Keen @ajkeen.bsky.social · 20/01/2025
keenon.substack.com/p/episode-23... optimistic words from Harvard's Martin Puchner on the long term role of technology in democratizing education
keenon.substack.com
Episode 2311: Martin Puchner looks forward to 2045 when the whole world will have access to high quality education
Why we should remain cheerful about our tech century
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
John Williams @johnwilliams.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
If you're in D.C. a week from tomorrow, there's an event at Politics & Prose honoring the history of Book World. I think the tone will likely be less funerary than you might imagine. I know my comments will be. politics-prose.com/tribute-book...
politics-prose.com
A Tribute to Book World
- Jonathan Yardley — author, book critic, Book World, 1983-2015
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Gareth L. Powell / G.L. Powell @garethlpowell.bsky.social · 21/07/2025
Does anyone else find it crazy that you can walk into a bookshop and be charged £9.99 for a paperback novel that took the author a year to complete, but £17.99 for a completely blank notebook?
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Charles Ornstein @charlesornstein.bsky.social · 13/02/2026
ProPublica is hiring! Join our team: * Data Reporter: grnh.se/t9m4zaoh6us * Audience Writer: grnh.se/cie29dxy6us * Visuals Editor: grnh.se/cie29dxy6us * Business Reporters: grnh.se/6uxr327r6us
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 14/02/2026
How did I live before I discovered The History of English Podcast? Just so fantastic. @englishhistpod.bsky.social
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Carl Hoffman @carlhoffman.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
My current and, sadly, last review for The Washington Post, as it retrenches and bows and eliminates its book section. www.washingtonpost.com/books/2026/0...
washingtonpost.com
Review | A historian corrects the record about the mysteries of Easter Island
In “Island at the Edge of the World,” Mike Pitts tells the story of the people who carved the giant heads on the remotest inhabited place on Earth.
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Alli DeJong @allidejong.bsky.social · 10/01/2025
I loved your book so much and have told everyone I know about it. Thank you for writing it!!! I’m forever obsessed with Tupaia speaking to the Māori and them understanding him
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
John M Danskin🐸 @johnmdanskin.bsky.social · 30/09/2025
... Transmitting an account of ... Voyage from ... To this island ... Natives ... I hope some of the other pages are easier to read. Love your prev books!
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
JohnEvansTW1 @johnevanstw1.bsky.social · 12/01/2026
@cathomps.bsky.social's book "Sea People" is a fascinating search into the lives and origins of the Pacific peoples. Cannot recommend it highly enough.
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Alli DeJong @allidejong.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
For Polynesia more broadly I can’t recommend Sea People by Christina Thompson enough!! Thoroughly researched and compelling writing
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 06/02/2025
New cool research on ancient populations (funded by NIH and NSF) news.harvard.edu/gazette/stor...
news.harvard.edu
Landmark studies track source of Indo-European languages— Harvard Gazette
Researchers place Caucasus Lower Volga people, speakers of ancestor tongue, in today’s Russia about 6,500 years ago
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 25/01/2025
🤔 if you’re not reading this guy you are missing something www.bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/chic...
bitsaboutmoney.com
A very Chicago gamble
Chicago and Bally's have teamed up in an investment offering.
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Ary Shalizi @unsequenced.bsky.social · 27/11/2024
Hey #booksky, if you are going to see Moana 2 this week, consider chasing it with a read of Sea People: The Puzzle of Polynesia by @cathomps.bsky.social. It’s a fascinating history of the culture and settlement of Oceania.
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Started a new book. Here’s a sample of some of the source material 😢
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 22/12/2024
Started a new book. Here’s a sample of some of the source material 😢
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Lala @veggiemusubi.bsky.social · 30/01/2024
Growing up in HI I learned about Polynesian navigation and voyaging in school and how fucking incredible it was - and when I went to the mainland this history was hardly mentioned - so cool to see light shining on this amazing part of the human story @chrislhayes.bsky.social
podcasts.apple.com
‎Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast: The Mystery and Miracle of Polynesia with Christi...
‎Show Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast, Ep The Mystery and Miracle of Polynesia with Christina Thompson - Jan 30, 2024
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 30/01/2024
Loved this conversation with Christina Thompson about the mystery and miracle of Polynesian settlement. #WITHPod podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
podcasts.apple.com
‎Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast: The Mystery and Miracle of Polynesia with Christi...
‎Show Why Is This Happening? The Chris Hayes Podcast, Ep The Mystery and Miracle of Polynesia with Christina Thompson - Jan 30, 2024
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Lee M @leemc.bsky.social · 31/01/2024
Really interesting discussion - just picked up the book from the library
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Christina Thompson @cathomps.bsky.social · 31/12/2023
@janerosenzweig.bsky.social has been doing a lot of thinking about writing and AI this past year. Here she offers links to what many other people have been saying about the subject, which, for those of us who are interested (but lazy), is a gift. Happy New Year! open.substack.com/pub/writingh...
open.substack.com
Four Rules for Writing in the Age of AI
Some things to consider in 2024
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Reposted by Christina Thompson
Elizabeth Greenspan @lizgreenspan.bsky.social · 28/12/2023
This is what you should read! www.harpercollins.com/products/sea...
harpercollins.com
Sea People
A blend of Jared Diamond’s Guns, Germs, and Steel and Simon Winchester’s Pacific, a thrilling intellectual detective story that looks deep into the past to uncover who first settled the islands of...
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