Candidates for 2023 IBHA Board Election
Daniel Barreiros	Daniel Barreiros is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Economics, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Professor at the Comparative History Graduate Program (PPGHC-UFRJ) and at the International Political Economy Graduate Program (PEPI-UFRJ). He is also a researcher at the Bioethics and Applied Ethics Center. He received a PhD in Social History from the Fluminense Federal University, Niterói, Brazil, and is a U.S. Department of State Alumni from the Study of the US Institute on United States Foreign Policy (Research Fellow at the Department of Political Sciences and International Relations, University of Delaware). His research is centered on the Big History of intersocietal conflict and cooperation.
Todd Duncan	Todd Duncan combines a research background in physics & astronomy with experience teaching science concepts to a wide range of audiences. His education includes a Ph.D. in Astronomy & Astrophysics from the University of Chicago and Physics degrees from the University of Illinois and Cambridge University. His core interest is understanding the fundamental nature of reality as best he can, while helping others discover their own ways to explore deep questions. Todd's publications include Your Cosmic Context: An Introduction to Modern Cosmology (co-authored with Craig Tyler and published by Pearson Education, 2009), and "Meaningful Mystery," a chapter in Science, Religion, & Deep Time, edited by Gustafson, Rodrique, & Blanks (2022). He teaches at Pacific University in Oregon.
Lowell Gustafson	Lowell Gustafson is Professor of Political Science at Villanova University in Pennsylvania (USA). His research has included how science explains the origin and development of polity and how emergent complexity provides an intellectual rationale for universities. His publications include SETI and Big History: Challenge and Extension, Journal of Big History, (2020) IV (2); 4 – 17. https://doi.org/10.22339/jbh.v4i2.4210, Science, Religion and Deep Time Edited By Lowell Gustafson, Barry H. Rodrigue, David Blanks Routledge, 2022 ISBN 9781032188614 He has completed terms as secretary, vice-president, and president of the International Big History Association (IBHA), and as editor of Origins: The Bulletin of the IBHA, (which was subsequently replaced by Emergence), served on the 2023 IBHA conference committee, and is currently an Associate Editor of the Journal of Big History.
Hirofumi Katayama	Hirofumi KATAYAMA is a big historian who made unparalleled contributions to the development of big history education and research in Japan. As Professor of environmental economics and Director of the Oberlin Big History Movement (OBHM) at J.F. Oberlin University in Tokyo, he opened a Course that was formally titled Big History for the first time in Japan (2016) that covers 13.8 billion years of history and envisions the future; began the first Big History Seminar in Japan with intensive reading of big history writings and convened the first international big history symposium in Japan (2019); started the Big History Collegium to study big history with outside scholars, specialists and the general public (2020); and finally established the first-ever Big History Major/ Minor program in the world that includes about forty related courses (2021). A main theme of his research is to criticize anthropocentrism of mainstream Big History and to build an alternative vision, namely, Buddhist Big History. With Kenji Ichikawa, big and world history teacher at Aletheia Shonan High School in Japan, he also plans to publish the Japanese edition of Cynthia Stokes Brown's last book, Big History, Small World.
Afshan Majid	Afshan Majid is a historian by training and is currently working as Assistant Professor at the Symbiosis School for Liberal Arts. She received her PhD in History from Aligarh Muslim University, India. Her doctoral work involved a study of Medieval Indian Society and Culture through the close reading of a 16th century text. Her areas of interest are Big History, Environmental History, and Textual Analysis. She co-developed and co-teaches the first undergraduate Big History course in India. Inspired by the methodology of Big History, she developed two courses called The History of Small Things, and History and Story: Through the Looking Glass of Fiction. They aim to unsettle the traditional methods of teaching history in particular and pedagogy in general. The History of Small Things borrows from the concept of Little Big History, and studies objects and their pivotal role in human history from a multidisciplinary perspective. History and Story: Through the Looking Glass of Fiction, attempts to shift the perch of the historian and look at the interactions between History and popular culture. She believes in pushing the boundaries of learning and finds Big History to be a crucial vehicle for that.
Aidan Wong	Aidan Wong is a graduating Ph.D. candidate at The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, with a research focus on interdisciplinary learning and sustainability education. He has been working to incorporate Big History into sustainability education and has shared his teaching experiences at various international conferences. In addition to being a co-instructor at the university, he has partnered with the Hong Kong Academy for Gifted Education to teach Big History and Sustainability to gifted secondary students. Aidan has published journal papers and news articles, as well as two course handbooks for local secondary students: "Big History: A Scientific Origin Story" (2019) and "Introduction to Sustainability for the 21st Century" (2020), in collaboration with the Hong Kong Scholars. With his experience and enthusiasm, Aidan is regarded as one of the local pioneers in facilitating the development of Big History. He is passionate about enhancing the connections among local Big Historians and hopes to bridge local, regional, and international efforts for the Big History community. He can be reached at aidanwong12@gmail.com.