Gina Bonakdar Nahai: Fantasies of Escape and Inclusion

Cry of the Peacock, Moonlight on the Avenue of Faith, and Caspian Rain are the enticing titles of Gina Bonakdar Nahai’s Iran-focused novels, published in 1991, 1999, and 2008 respectively. And the titles hold true: the narratives reflect the pain, melancholy and dream-like beauty conveyed in the titles as they divulge characters who strive to escape the restrictions of their community, religion, government, and gender. In the meantime, as the author depicts these fantasies of escape and attempts at flight –and frequently harshly punishes them–, the characters achieve a hitherto unknown feat, namely the depiction of Jewish Iranian main characters at the center of everyday Iranian life. Nay, the author goes further than that even as her characters become entangled in the lives of great or notable historical figures, from the Qajars to the Pahlavis, creating an arc of Jewish presence through Persian history

Sin Boldly! Or, First-Year Experience ‘Big History’ in 21st Century Liberal Education

Big History is rapidly emerging as a new global discipline! whose adoption into diverse educational models is advocated by a rich array of voices, from those of educators and artists to industrialists and spiritualists. Of those voices, some concern themselves primarily with higher education and, in turn, almost unanimously advocate for the inclusion of Big History into general education programs or core curricula. Unfortunately, the unanimity ends there. Bemoaning the politics and territoriality of higher education, many of these advocates feel forced to bow to institutional realities and the ever-continuous competition for turf and resources; and thus aspirations and hopes are reduced to that which is deemed possible in a hostile environment. Inevitably, the advocate is faced with questions, such as: What is it? Is it history? Is it a social science course? Should it be an interdisciplinary elective? Will it kill World History? Doesn’t it really belong in the category of myth and narrative? So, inevitably, the advocate’s search for an available niche begins

Slimmer, Brighter, and Nearly Perfect: The New Big History Textbook Is Here

Rarely has the appearance of a new textbook been the cause of such delight as broke out amongst the First Year Experience faculty at Dominican University of California in August 2013. The book that triggered such reaction is a seemingly unassuming volume, Big History: Between Nothing and Everything (2013), written by historians David Christian, Cynthia Stokes Brown, and Craig Benjamin, and published by McGraw-Hill. Why was the book greeted with such enthusiasm, you might ask? Was it that the world needed another textbook on history? That the Dominican faculty felt a special bond with one of the authors, Dominican professor emerita Cynthia Brown? That a First Year Experience is more appealing when it uses an actual textbook with color and attractive images? The answer to all of those questions is “yes,” and yet, there was more to it than that

The Why and Where of Big History: Building a Program

The goals of our First Year Experience program are aligned with our institutional mission, our core values, and the goals of our General Education program. The program is designed to promote: recognition of the personal, communal, and political implications of the Big History story; critical and creative thinking in a manner that awakens curiosity and enhances openness to multiple perspectives; and, development of reading, thinking, and research skills to enhance one’s ability to evaluate and articulate understanding of one’s place in the unfolding universe

Big History as General Education

A presentation on the emerging discipline Big History and how it could be integrated into the general education curriculum, using the First Year Experience at Dominican University of California as an example