Course Descriptions and Catalog
History Trips and Travel Itineraries
Who's Who in the History Department
Faculty Biographies
Course Descriptions and Catalog
History Trips and Travel Itineraries
Who's Who in the History Department
Office: BONH-329
Email: brad.reynolds@canyons.edu/ bradley.reynolds@csun.edu
Office Phone: 661-362-3388
Webpage: http://www.bradreynolds1.pageout.net
Courses taught: HIST 101, 102, 111, 112, 130, 240
Dr. Reynolds holds history degrees from both UCLA and USC. He has taught history for over thirty years at three universities and two community colleges. His passion, besides history, is traveling, and he has visited over eighty countries. He looks forward to discussing history and travel with you.
Office: SECO-202-D
Email: Michael.Dermody@canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 362-3354
Courses taught: HIST 101, 102, 111, 112, 210, and Political Science
Professor Dermody is the College of the Canyons Field Station Coordinator.
Office: SECO-306 A
Email: sherrill.pennington@canyons.edu
Office Phone: 661-362-3717
Courses taught: HIST 111, 112, 191, 192
Professor Pennington is a graduate of Columbia University, and specializes in eastern civilization.
Office: SECO 312-E
Email: John.Varga@Canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 362-3720
Courses taught: HIST 111, 112, 240
Professor Varga specializes in Latin American history.
HIST 111 Syllabus - Spring, 2013
HIST 111 Writing Guide and Example
HIST 112 Syllabus - Spring, 2013
HIST 112 Writing Guide and Example
HIST 243 Syllabus - Spring, 2013
Office: HSLH-328
Email: stephen.branch@canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 362-3064
Courses taught: HIST 111, 112, 161, 230
Stephen Branch holds both a bachelor's and master's degree from the University of South Florida. Additionally, he has accumulated post graduate hours from the University of Florida and California State University, Fullerton, and a Graduate Certificate in Community College Teaching from the California State University, Dominguez Hills.
Connie Tripp
Office Hours: M, W 2:30-3:30
Office: HSLH-341
Email: connie.tripp@canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 362-5931
Courses taught: HIST 111, 112, 120, 120 H, 210
One of my goals is to try to make history come alive for myself and my students. In order to do this my husband and I have traveled around much of the U.S. visiting the sites where history happened. We have seen most of the Lewis and Clark Trail, the Alamo, Massachusetts and its sites, Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia and N. Carolina, Gettysburg, and many other great places around the country.
Brent Riffel
Office Hours: M-Th 2:00-3:00 PM, and by appointment
Office: BOYK-309
Email: Brent.Riffel@Canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 362-3151
Courses taught: HIST 101, 102, 111, 112, 115, 130, 161, 212
Dr. Riffel teaches American history, social and cultural American history, and the history of the Middle East. He is also faculty adviser for the COC History Club.
Spring, 2013 Course Syllabi:
HIST 111 M-W, 9:30-10:50 - 89820
HIST 112 M-W, 11:00-12:20 - 89822
HIST 112 M-W, 12:30-1:50 - 89824
HIST 212 T-TH, 9:30-10:50 - 89825
HIST 112 T-TH, 11:00-12:20 - 89823
HIST 112 T-TH, 12:30-1:50 - 89821
Peter Virgadamo
Office Hours: Tues/Thurs from 11 am to 12:30 pm
Office: BONH-312
Email: pete_virgadamo@yahoo.com
Office Phone: (661) 362-3315
Courses taught: HIST 111, HIST 112
Although raised in San Diego, my doctoral education and teaching have been in the Los Angeles area. I earned my doctorate in History from the University of Southern California [USC] in 1982, and at that time my academic specialty was in Colonial and Revolutionary America, which remains a strong interest. More recently my research has focused on warships and naval policy of the 20th century, and I hope to complete a book on that subject.
Office Hours: By Appointment
Office: BONH-312
Email: snomelli@yahoo.com
Office Phone: (661) 259-3540
Courses Taught: HIST 111, 112
I fell in love with history as a re-entry student attending a small community college, exposed to excellent history professors for the first time in my life. My academic goals soon changed to share my love for history and make it come alive to students through exposure to fascinating autobiographies, films, class discussions, and pulling it all together with interesting lectures. The history of a nation is really the history of the people who lived in that nation and the study of those people make history incredibly captivating.
Office Hours: By Appointment
Office: BONH-312
Email: kathleen.addison@csun.edu
Office Phone: (661) 259-3540
Courses taught: HIST 101, 102, 161
Email: Sarah.Burns@Canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 496-7114
Webpage: http://www.sarahcburns.com/SarahCBurns-Home.html
Courses taught: HIST 101, 102, 111, 112, 116, 120, 130, 170
Sarah Chloe Burns is currently an Adjunct Professor of History with the College of the Canyons History Department in Santa Clarita, California, past Lecturer with the California State University Bakersfield's History Department, and past Adjunct Professor of History with Bakersfield College's History Department. While teaching at Bakersfield College, she created the only American Women's History survey course being taught at a California Community College at the time. Within Burns's areas of expertise in European History, Colonial and Modern American History, and Women's History, her concentration on gender and race relations has served as the impetus for her first novel: DAUGHTERS OF JUNO, CHRONICLE I; MATILDA OF ARGYLL (© 2004), from Ivy House Books, an imprint of Pentland Press (NC). The book was published in March of 2004, and was soon designated as one of "Bakersfield's Best" for 2004, by Russo's Bookstore. It is currently under publication in its second and revised edition as MATILDA OF ARGYLL, with University Press of the South. Sarah was a member of the Oxford Roundtable on Human Rights and Gender Discrimination April 30-May 4, 2003, where she presented her paper, “In The Shadow of the Conqueror; the Need to Embrace a New Hero Myth.” She also participated in the 2nd Annual International Conference on European History—Ancient to Modern—presented by the Athens Institute of Education, Athens, Greece December 29, 2004. The article she presented, “Mothering Mother Earth; the Path of the Nurturing Matriarch from Ancient Greece to the 19th Century Parisian Salon,” was published in the journal which proceeded from that Conference. She is currently preparing a book on international goddesses of the ancient world.
Email: kathleen.hitt@canyons.edu
Courses taught: HIST 101, 111, 112, 102, 161
Kathleen Hitt earned her B.A. in history with a minor in Art History from Occidental in 1999. In 2000 she studied the History and Architecture of Oxford, at Merton College, Oxford, England through UC-Berkeley. She received her M.A. in History with honors from CSUN in 2004. Kathleen teaches Western Civilization I & II, U.S. History, and World History. She recently published entries in ABC-CLIO World War II Encyclopedia on Franklin D. Roosevelt, and other World War II personages, with entries forthcoming on the American Revolution and Medieval warfare. Kathleen received film credit as Film Researcher for 'Washington the Warrior' and 'Washington’s Generals' telecast on the History Channel in 2006.
Gregory Shrout
Office Hours: By Appointment
Office: BONH-312
Email: gregoryshrout@yahoo.com
Office Phone: (661) 259-3540 Cell (661) 993-6730
Courses taught: HIST 101, 102, 111, 112, 115, 130, 150, 161, 170, 191, 192,
HIST 102 Section 89842 (Spring, 2013) Syllabus
HIST 111 Online Section 89971 (Spring, 2013) Syllabus
HIST 111 Online Section 89973 (Spring, 2013) Syllabus
Gregory is a trained Sinologist who has worked at University campuses throughout Southern California for twenty years. In order to complete his research, he spent several years in China at the Shaanxi Normal University, in the city Xian, People’s Republic of China. In China, Gregory received an Honorary Ph.D. from Shaanxi Normal University for his research on the Chinese delegation at the Versailles Peace Conference of 1919. He worked with adult learners in accelerated classrooms teaching conversational English and American History and Culture to K-12 teachers. The courses were highly compressed with Courses at night and on weekends. Gregory was very successful in adapting course work to accommodate different needs of the adult students who were from very diverse cultural backgrounds.
Office Hours: By appointment only
Office: BONH-312
Email: gilli.halaby@gmail.com
Office Phone: (818) 294-2770
Courses taught: HIST 102, HIST 161
Drawing on a wealth of experiences travelling and studying the world, Professor Halaby specializes in Western Civilization and World History.
Office: BONH-312
Email: gregg.frazer@canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 259-3540 ext. 3132
Courses taught: HIST 111
Dr. Frazer has a Ph.D. from Claremont Graduate University, and an MA from California State University at Los Angeles. The focus of his dissertation and his continuing research is the founding of America. He has taught history at the collegiate level for twenty years. Dr. Frazer is a part-time high school football coach at Oaks Christian High School. He enjoys strategic board and computer games and listening to jazz or classical music. He is a loyal fan of the Green Bay Packers and the Kansas City Royals His book, The Religious Beliefs of America's Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution, will be released in 2012.
Lissa Brassfield
Office: BONH-312
Email: lissa.brassfield@canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 259-7800
Courses taught: HIST 111, HIST 111 Honors, HIST 210
Resident of Santa Clarita Valley since 1969. Graduated from William S. Hart high in Newhall. I began my academic journey as a returning student at College of the Canyons majoring in history. I had classes then with Brad and was a co-nominee for the Truman Scholarship. Attended California State University Northridge where I completed my bachelors and Masters Degrees in History with Theta Tau honors. I began teaching history at College of the Canyons in 2001. I've always been drawn to history....it's exciting and dynamic. I love traveling to historic sites. Colonial Williamsburg is one of my favorite places. I also enjoyed being part of the CSUN program in Natchez, Mississippi under Dr. Ronald Davis who introduced us to the joys of research and preservation.
Office: CCC-205
Email: mark.capehart@canyons.edu
Office Phone: (661) 476-3800
Courses taught: HIST 111, HIST 130
Office Hours: Friday, 10:00AM-1:00PM
Mark W. Capehart has his MA from CSU Northridge and has been with College of the Canyons since 2010. He is also an independent film producer with multiple credits and frequently lectures on his two favorite genres, documentary and horror films.