Craig Benjamin

Craig G. Benjamin is an Australian-American historian who is professor of history in the Frederik J. Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University, where he teaches East Asian civilization, Big History, ancient Central Asian history, and world history historiography. In 2014 and 2015 he served as president of the World History Association.

Biography Benjamin grew up in Brisbane, Australia. Benjamin dropped out of college at the age of 19, spending the next 25 years as a professional musician and jazz educator. He pursued his undergraduate education at The Australian National University in Canberra and Macquarie University in Sydney, and gained his PhD in ancient history from Macquarie University in 2003 with his dissertation The Yuezhi: Origin, Migration and the Conquest of Northern Bactria.

Having emigrated to the United States after receiving his PhD, Benjamin has since become professor of history in the Frederik J. Meijer Honors College at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) in Allendale, Michigan. He teaches East Asian civilization, Big History, ancient Central Asian history, and world history historiography.

Benjamin has written about the ancient history of Central Asia, Big History and world history. He has recorded lectures for the History Channel and the Discovery Channel. Benjamin has recorded three courses for the Teaching Company's Great Courses series: Foundations of Eastern Civilization, The Big History of Civilizations, and The Mongol Empire. Together with David Christian and Cynthia Brown, he is the author of the first Big History textbook Big History: Between Nothing and Everything, which was published by McGraw-Hill in August 2014.