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Course SyllabiSince students sometimes misplace syllabi, here you should find versions of the syllabus for the various courses I teach. Though none of my courses is set in stone, I tend not to completely restructure classes, so if the syllabus you want is not present for the term you're curious about, you can still assume that most information will be applicable to subsequent terms.
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Instructor InformationI am a member of the department of History, Humanities, Philosophy & Ethnic Studies on the Riverside campus, though I have also taught at the Moreno Valley and Norco campuses. I am also credentialed to teach history, philosophy, and political science at the community college level and have taught each subject at RCC. I have also taught at Deep Springs College, Diablo Valley College, West Valley College, Cabrillo College and UC Santa Cruz before coming to the Inland Empire. I am chair of the RCC Curriculum Committee and past president of the Riverside City College Academic Senate (2006-09). I have also served on the Assessment Committee, the Program Review committee, the Riverside campus and RCC District Strategic Planning committees. I chaired the ad hoc RCC Academic Senate committee that created RCC's Honors Program. I also chaired the Leadership and Governance Accreditation committee and acted as co-editor of the college's 2007 Self Study. I am a past member of the RCC/CTA Executive Board. I am also a past president of the Faculty Association of Riverside Community College District. In October 2006, I was elected to fill a vacated South position on the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate for California Community Colleges. I have served on (and in some cases chaired) several committees of the statewide Academic Senate, including Articulation & Transfer, Basic Skills, Counseling & Library Faculty Issues, Curriculum, Educational Policy, Noncredit, and Relations with Local Senates. I am chairing the Curriculum Committee for the 2009-10 academic year. I have also served on DETAC (Distance Education Technical Advisory Committee) and as the lead faculty coordinator for Humanities for the IMPAC Project (Intersegmental Major Preparation Articulated Curriculum). About "Humanities" "Humanities" is the term given to both a wide range of academic fields, and to specific departments that promote interdisciplinary study of the various disciplines of the humanities, which include art and art history, music, literature, philosophy, history, religious studies, classics, and foreign languages. At RCC, humanities courses include both religious studies courses and interdisciplinary humanities survey courses. Because of its specialized disciplinary focus, the University of California does not offer BA level major programs in "humanities." By contrast, several CSU campus do offer either BA or MA programs in Humanities. I've provided links to let you see what those major programs look like. You'll note that San Diego combines humanities and classics while Sacramento combines humanities and religious studies (the combination most similar to RCC). San Francisco is the only campus that offers both a BA and MA in Humanities and has the most extensive course offerings of public colleges and universities in the state.
There are also interdisciplinary programs at some private colleges in southern California. Religious Studies At RCC, courses in religious studies are also folded into the Humanities discipline. This is rarely the case in four year institutions, which offer distinct major programs in Religious Studies, in both the California State University System and in the University of California. Graduate study in Religious Studies is not available in the CSU system, though several UC campuses offer graduate study in Religious Studies, with UC Santa Barbara having the most elaborate and broadly staffed program. In general, programs in Religious Studies are distinct from seminary or theology programs which usually assume a doctrinal orientation and assume some level of faith among students. By contrast, Religious Studies programs make no assumption about the student's personal faith or commitment. The following links will connect you to the home pages for Religious Studies programs in public colleges and universities in California.
TEN COMMON MISTAKES IN RELIGION YOU COULD
AVOID! 1. Hinduism is polytheistic; Hinduism is monotheistic 2. Confucianism recognizes no higher power 3. Christians observe the Ten Commandments 4. Christians Keep the Sabbath 5. Catholics aren’t Christians 6. Taoists worship Lao Tzu 7. Buddha is a God 8. Nirvana is a place 9. Islam disrespects women 10. Islam promotes violence Back to Top |
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Biographical InformationI liked high school at first but got bored and then alienated at its apparent preoccupation with keeping kids off the street. (Yes, I was rather cynical at that stage of life.) I took community college classes in my junior year of high school so that I could escape high school early, but I had no intention of continuing formal education. Only after frittering away more of the year after high school graduation did I decide to try school again, and to my pleasant surprise, it finally clicked that education could be interesting if the instructor loved their subject and was not preoccupied with policing adolescents. I continued on to complete AA requirements at West Valley College; I finished my BA at UC Santa Cruz in History and Religious Studies in 1978, and I finished my Ph.D. at UCSC in history of consciousness (History and Politics) in 1989. History of consciousness is an interdisciplinary graduate program for graduate students whose interests overlap multiple academic fields. My own personal interests focused on the shaping effect of religious values and political theory on cultural history. I have been at RCC since the spring of 1998. I previously taught as an adjunct faculty member at Deep Springs College, Diablo Valley College, West Valley College, and Cabrillo College. I also taught as a lecturer at the University of California at Santa Cruz and worked as an academic advisor at Adlai Stevenson College at UCSC. At RCC, I regularly teach classes in Arts & Ideas (Humanities 4, 5, and 16), World Religions (Humanities 10), Religion in America (Humanities 11, an online course), and Death (Humanities 18). I have also taught World History, Introduction to Philosophy, Critical Thinking, Ethics, and American Government at RCC. I live in the San Bernardino mountains with my wife Cindy, my charming urchin children, Nathaniel, Jonathan, Faith, and Blaise, and our non-human companions, Ginny (a weiner dog), Einstein, and Mrs. Whiskey (cats). I have been married for 11 years. My goddaughter tossed a coin at the altar when my wife and I were married and Cindy called heads; she won the coin toss with the consequence that I took her last name and became a Mahon. As a native and almost lifelong native Northern Californian, I am still adjusting to life in the Inland Empire. I miss rain in winter (though now I get snow) and I am amazed at what gets thrown away on the RCC campus that could (and should) be recycled. Back to Top |
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Personal Loves
What I wish I'd read: somehow I've never read Dante's Divine Comedy except for short excerpts. I'm still fairly ignorant about most medieval literature. I'd love to have the time to read Joyce's Ulysses and Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow slowly.
Movies: I often use film clips in class to illustrate ideas from course readings. You might want to look at the linked page "about Movies." Among my favorite films are Annie Hall, Kundun, Once Upon a Time in America, Lacombe Lucien. I use clips from the Joy Luck Club in various courses. I'm something of a fan of Juliet Binoche and Edward Norton. I particularly recommend Krzysztof Kieslowski's Dekalog if you can find it: it's a series of 10 one hours dramas made for Polish television loosely based on each of the Ten Commandments and makes an interesting commentary on ethics and modern life. I also like his "three color trilogy" quite a bit (White, Blue, Red, the colors chosen from the colors of the French flag and representing the qualities of liberty (White) equality (Blue) and fraternity (Red). Places: Heart Rock: a lovely 30 minute hike from where I live in the San Bernardino Mountains; Skyline to the Sea: a trail the leads from the summit of the Santa Cruz mountains, through Big Basin Redwoods State park, to the Pacific Ocean; the Garden of Eden: a set of pools along the San Lorenzo River in Henry Cowell Redwoods State park a few miles north of Santa Cruz; Loch Lomond; rural Sonoma county in a wet winter; Yosemite Valley in early spring; Desolation Wilderness (southwest of Lake Tahoe) as long as my tent isn't submerged or blowing away; the midwest during a hellacious thunderstorm (as long as I'm not driving through it). One of these days I'm going to make the hike from Deep Creek in the San Bernardino Mountains down to the high desert to the north.
Montreal on foot; walking Manhattan from Wall Street to Harlem (an all day trek); Boulder, Colorado and Burlington, Vermont (both are great college towns); Portland, Oregon, despite the temptation to spend all of one's time at Powell's bookstore. Persons Public: Bill Graham, the secular Jewish European exile turned San Francisco rock promoter whose public spirit following the Loma Prieta earthquake inspired people throughout the Bay Area and the country; Cardinal O'Connor, the late Cardinal of New York who combined deeply conservative religious and social values with compassion and respect for all; Hanan Ashrawi, the Christian Palestinian whose intelligence and personal integrity appears to dwarf her better known political allies and rivals; the Dalai Lama, for courage, patience, and a sense of humor; Maxine Hong Kingston, Richard Rodriguez, Sherman Alexie, for speaking at RCC with a sense of purpose and humor. Back to Top |
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Comments and SuggestionsPlease send me mail telling me what you think about this site and how I might improve it. Back to Top |
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