David Christian

David Christian

David Christian is Professor of History and Director of the Big History Institute at Macquarie University in Sydney. By training a historian of Russia and the Soviet Union, he has become interested in world history on very large scales, or “Big History,” since the 1980s. He taught at Macquarie University from 1975 to 2000, then at San Diego State University, before returning to Macquarie in 2009. He was founding president of the International Big History Association and co-founder, with Bill Gates, of the Big History Project. He is the author of Maps of Time: An Introduction to Big History, among many other books and articles. He holds a PhD from Oxford University.

GTI Contributions
New Ways of Seeing the World: Big History and Great Transition
GTI Forum
New Ways of Seeing the World: Big History and Great Transition
Opening essay for a GTI Forum
May 2023

Response to Comments
GTI Forum
Response to Comments
Contribution to GTI Forum Big History and Great Transition
May 2023

The Case for Optimism
GTI Forum
The Case for Optimism
Contribution to GTI Forum Which Future Are We Living In?
November 2022


Roundtable contribution on World Political Party - David Christian
Roundtable
Contribution to GTI Roundtable Party Time?
February 2019
New integrated curricula and a “big history” perspective will help create the global citizens who will become the foundation for a world party.

David Christian
Roundtable
Contribution to GTI Roundtable "On Higher Education"
An exchange on the essay A Higher Calling for Higher Education
June 2016