iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 03/09/2026

Very much looking forward to giving this talk!

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 16/08/2026

Easy. Naomi Novik's Temeraire series. Master and Commander plus dragons.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 23/05/2026

My mother retired from public school teaching yesterday after 20+ years. She always gave her students the Charles Dickens prize for best essay, named after some Charles Dickens action figures she got at a garage sale. They had a last message for the students!

Three Charles Dickens action figures with top hats. They have signs that say School's Out Forever.

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Reposted by Christina Welsch

Sailing with the French @sailingwthefrench.bsky.social · 11/03/2026

We're excited to present some aspects of our project at #AAS2026 -- looking forward to a great (hybrid) conversation about 'New Approaches to Colonial Archives in S. Asian #DH' -- w @electrostani.bsky.social, @shreethorat.bsky.social , @christinawelsch.bsky.social & @schottemargaret.bsky.social

AAS2026 Annual Conference, Sat. March 14, 2-3:30pm, location: VCC, room 203.
Panel # 827: "New Approaches to Colonial Archives in South Asian Digital Humanities"
Discipline: History
Abstract: As Roopika Risam and Rahul Gairola note in their recent survey of S. Asian digital humanities, "the digital afterlives of colonialism shape the formation of the digital cultural record and, in turn, the cultural memory of humanity" (South Asian Review, 2019). This interdisciplinary panel will present a series of strategies for revisiting colonial archives, interrogating the original format and purpose of extant colonial records and considering how to use digital methodologies to intervene in and break those patterns, rather than replicating them."

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 27/12/2025

You've just opened up a star trek themed restaurant What are you calling it? "Boldly" (Turn that split infinitive into an imperative!)

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 21/10/2025

Some internet questions are easier for me to answer than others...

Cover of a book: the company's sword: the East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858 by Christina Welsch. The cover is off white and red with an 18th century landscape featuring a bridge, an Indian soldier, and several other Indian people.

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Reposted by Christina Welsch

Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 20/10/2025

🗃️ Very pleased that my new article "‘Tippoo…Was Just Such a Man As I Am’: Protest, Rebellion and Military Labour in South India" is now available via early access in South Asia www.tandfonline.com/eprint/ZEFEU....

tandfonline.com

‘Tippoo…Was Just Such a Man As I Am’: Protest, Rebellion and Military Labour in South India

The East India Company’s expansion over South India profoundly disrupted economic networks. Scholarship on this ‘colonial transition’ has shown that colonial subjects challenged the Company’s rule ...

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 18/10/2025

This is incredible work and disheartening findings. Sorry to say my college is also a part of this trend.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 13/10/2025

Petition summarized in translation.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 26/07/2025

P. J. Marshall was one of the first scholars (who wasn't actually my teacher) to give me encouragement on my work. Forever grateful, and am sad to hear of his passing.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 15/05/2025

@kavehmd.bsky.social Love the pod! I listened to the fluoride episode, and I wanted to know if you had any suggestions for parents who live in places that have already banned fluoride. Besides protesting the ban (and brushing), what else can I do to protect my kid's teeth?

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 16/04/2025

So @tressiemcphd.bsky.social's point would basically be valid in any context, but you should've seen my face when I opened the conversation to see someone insulting one of the best-looking plates of red beans I've ever seen...

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 14/04/2025

Yet more evidence that administrators will do anything to avoid adding more tenure-track lines... (This is a joke. Well done, Harvard! Keep fighting so that those of us at other, smaller colleges can follow suit.)

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 06/04/2025

Got my newly issued work PC on Friday, and was horrified to discover that it includes a new key that by default opens up Microsoft Copilot. LLMs just turned hate, greed, and ignorance into a tariff on penguins. Why in the world do I need a dedicated stupidity button on this machine?

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Reposted by Christina Welsch

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 01/04/2025

"I don't want a Disney vacation of our history! I don't a whitewashed history, I don't want a homogenized history. Tell me the wretched truth about America, because that speaks to our greatness" -- 20 hours into his speech, Cory Booker is spitting absolute 🔥

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 06/03/2025

This article is great. The concerns raised about the oft-suggested panacea of in-class writing seem particularly relevant. Learning how to write (and think) should be deliberate (often slow), and, with society devaluing it and LLMs offering shortcuts, how do we convince students it's worth doing?

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 11/02/2025

Sometimes history is a serious, rigorous pursuit. Sometimes you read about a colonial official named "Mr. Mango Dick." From Potukuchi Swarnalatha's interesting article "Revolt, Testimony, Petition: Artisanal Protests in Colonial Andhra." (Possibly a misspelling for Mungo, but Mango is more fun.) 🗃️

Extract of a document reading "inquire into our grievances. When Mr. Mango Dick was here and in the Board he treated us as the children of the Honourable Company and ever since his departure to Europe, Chinnum Jaggapah now of great influence and the present gentleman (Mr. Taylor) has been doing great injustice towards us and we live now as children without parents. We pray that you will be pleased to depute..."

The name "Mr. Mango Dick" is highlighted in yellow.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 10/02/2025

Turns out Lin-Manuel Miranda was right, just 250 years off. The republic will be saved by rapping.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 06/02/2025

You know the Ben Franklin quote about whether the sun on Washington's chair at the Constitutional Convention was rising or setting? I give you the 2025 version: is this abandoned sign from the protests yesterday forlorn or hopefully persistent?

A black and white image of a cardboard sign reading "DOWN WITH TYRANNY" laying beneath a wrought iron bench on a sidewalk. A pile of leaves is nearby.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 23/12/2024

Move over, Odysseus's twelve axe-heads, the rightful owner of this estate is the one who can drive a matchbox car through twelve construction paper tunnels...

A row of pieces of colorful construction paper, taped to the ground to form tunnels, on a wooden floor, leading into a kid's playroom. Kid is sitting to one side of the tunnel, but the face is blurred/covered by a doodle for anonymity.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 13/12/2024

My favorite holiday mug is one from my best friend that says "ohne Dich ist Weihnachten doof" (without you, Christmas is stupid).

A white mug sitting on a wooden desk near a keyboard. The mug is decorated with cartoon images of St. Nicholas, a star, a snowman, and presents. Each cartoon is labeled with the German word for the object and the word "doof" (stupid)

A white mug on a wooden desk with a keyboard on it. The mug is decorated with a cartoon christmas tree, a mouse wearing a halo, and a plate of cookies. Each cartoon is labeled with the German word for the object and the word "doof" (stupid).

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 10/12/2024

The fact that Discord insists that I am "playing" Scrivener really understates how hard the writing process can be some days...

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 01/12/2024

I spent half my undergrad thinking that "the long eighteenth century" was a subjective descriptor, like "I had such a long week."

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 28/11/2024

2-year-old and I are stuck in the house with (very mild) pneumonia and going stir crazy. I decided to let him practice his archeology skills. I ground up some cheerios to "sand" and buried some alphabet cookies in it. He had to dig for the cookies and then brush them off to read the inscriptions.

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Reposted by Christina Welsch

I support Somali-Americans @adamrothman.bsky.social · 23/11/2024

Optimist: The cup is half full. Pessimist: The cup is half empty. Historian: The cup, 1789-1914

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 21/11/2024

Hi, I'm Christina, and my course on British imperial history has too much history in it.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

I've never pre-ordered a special collectors' edition faster than I did @nkjemisin.bsky.social 's Broken Earth trilogy. It just arrived, and it is gorgeous. (And clearly my cat Zelda wants more installments.)

stack of three books, with The Fifth Seaslm on top. Behind them is an illustrated book display box with the image of a woman in front of a volcano. A gray and white striped cat is sniffing the box as if looking for more books.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 19/11/2024

Their Eyes Were Watching God HARD ❌ Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. EASY ✅ Hope floats like boats.

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Reposted by Christina Welsch

Winds of Change @windsofchangepod.bsky.social · 18/11/2024

How did the Sun set on the British Empire? A documentary history podcast on the end of the British Empire in India, the first full episode of Winds of Change is now out, everywhere you find your podcasts! pod.link/1779033628

pod.link

Winds of Change

The Sun Never Set on the British Empire... until it did. Each week, Dr Samuel Hume explores the history of Indian Independence with captivating narrative and joined by expert guests. If you love learn...

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Reposted by Christina Welsch

deborahhamer.bsky.social @deborahhamer.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

A striking thing from the @jcblibrary.bsky.social exhibition is this 1758 book that records the VOC's rules for food lading/ distribution going back to 1695. The existence of this book testifies how contested food was and how non-uniform provisioning was even within an ostensibly strong institution.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

The East India Company not only ruled (parts of) India independent of the British government for almost a century; it had its own army that, during its most intensive period of expansion, was bigger than the entire British Army.

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 14/11/2024

🗃️ Interested in how army officers shaped the politics and ideologies of colonial rule in the East India Company? I really enjoyed giving this talk at the Cambridge Centre for Geopolitics: www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vl7G... Many thanks to @1812andallthat.bsky.social for the invitation.

youtube.com

The Company’s Sword: The East India Company and the Politics of Militarism, 1644-1858

YouTube video by Centre for Geopolitics

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

As a hello to the new communities forming on Bluesky, I thought it would be a good time to post my favorite zany historical story: William Randall's Tiger Assassination Plot 🐯 Randall sailed from Britain to south India in 1774, hoping to find a job with the East India Company...

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

This was a great conversation, and I'm looking forward to the podcast!

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Christina Welsch @christinawelsch.bsky.social · 12/11/2024

Not technically new here, but I'm trying to start being part of the community, rather than just a lurker. Here's #proofofcat, which I understand is the price of admission.

A beige and black tabby cat with his arms folded in front, sitting on an unseen person's legs

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