NEBULA
VOLUME 44 I ssue 2
PAGE 9
BIG HISTORY
by Chris Oddy
Have you heard of something called
Big History?
Big History is our story, starting
fro m just after the Big Bang 13.81
billion years ago, travelling across
different timescales and disciplines
tracing our history. It is older than the
written word and takes in the cosmos,
Earth, life and humanity.
My name is Chris Oddy and, to-
gether with Rick Rogers , I would like
to introduce you to this subject. We
are trying to put together an education
and local interest package on Big His-
tory. We would like to include local
groups and organisations as we pro-
gress.
Big History Leeds is looking at set-
ting up a multi-subject course based
on Cosmology, Earth Science, Natural
History and Humanities among others.
We also aim to give the course a local
slant and add something of ourselves
to this wonderful story.
As regards to education, in the short
term Rick Rogers recently gave two
talks in Leeds as an introduction to
Big History. These took place on:
i) Friday September 16th , 1152 Club,
Kirkstall Abbey House
ii) Friday October 7 th , Sociable His-
tory Club, City Museum
Beyond that we would like to put
together a course on Big History but
with a Leeds/Yorkshire slant to it. We
could base it around The Big History
Project (we can use their online facili-
ties). If there is sufficient interest we
could have the first course trial in the
new year and take it fro m there. If
anyone in the Leeds Astronomy So-
ciety and/or readers of Nebula are
interested please let me know what
your thoughts are (via email
[email protected] m)
In time the three courses we are
looking at organising are:-
A one off course/lecture giving us
Leeds’ 13.8 billion year story ahead
of Leeds’ bid for European City of
Culture 2023.
An eight part course based on the
Big History Project (we can use
their online facilit ies). The aim is to
give Big History a Yo rkshire slant.
A fuller course with depth to it for
anyone wanting to take this subject
further.
The content would be down to the
people involved in the process of cre-
ating the course. It would be great if
you could help Rick with a few ideas
as regards to content on the Cosmolo-
gy/Astronomy side of things. Rick
Rogers main area is History, not Cos-
mo logy, Earth Science, Geology, Nat-
ural History etc so there would be
serious scope for local groups and
organisations to make their mark.
Please let me know what you think.
Finally, if you would like to know
more about Big History (and have
access to the Internet), please check
the references below.
Big History in 2mins
http://www.snotr.com/video/9884/
Our_history_in_2_minutes
TED talk by David Christian, who
coined the name “Big History”
www.ted.com/talks/david_christian
_big_history?language=en
A 1991 artic le on where Big History
comes fro m: The Case for “Big Histo-
ry”, by David Christian, Macquarie
University
http://www.uhpress.hawaii.edu/jou
rnals/jwh/jwh022p223.pdf
International Big History Associa-
tion
http://www.ibhanet.org/
The Big History Project
bighistoryproject.com
Big History Institute, Macquaire Uni-
versity
http://bighistory.mq.edu.au/
Big History European Network
http://bighistory.eu
Big History UK
http://bighistory.org.uk/
Big History Leeds
http://www.bighistoryleeds.co.uk/
Facebook
http://m.facebook.com/BigHistory
Leeds?
Twitter
https://mobile.twitter.com/bighisto
ryleeds
A ti meline of the Big History Project "Threshol ds" as presented on the B HP website