Second IBHA Conference: Dominican University of California, San Rafael, CA. August 6-10, 2014

The second conference of the International Big History Association was held at Dominican University of California, a small private university situated twelve miles north of the Golden Gate Bridge, August 6 -10, 2014. Dominican is the first university to require Big History for all its first-year students.

The conference theme was “Teaching and Researching Big History: Big Picture, Big Questions” and the opening keynote “The Meaning of Big History” was delivered by David Christian. The first plenary session was led by Robert Connor, former president of the Teagle Foundation. The three conference days included concurrent sessions and roundtables, presentations by the Big History Project and the Microsoft Chronozoom Project, theatrical performances, and a screening of film The Journey of the Universe followed by a lively panel discussion between IBHA Board members and the filmmakers

The conference closed with Fred Spier’s keynote, “The Future of Humanity,” leaving everyone with a deeper and broader understanding of the past and excited about their role in shaping the future.