Faculty
Full-Time Faculty
Professor James Crippen, Ph.D.
Professor of Philosophy
714.992.7518
Office: 1422.02
jcrippen@fullcoll.edu
Dr. Crippen has been teaching philosophy in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at Fullerton College since 2000. He regularly teaches courses in the History of Philosophy series along with the core Philosophy courses. Dr. Crippen has participated in Learning Communities and the Honors program, as well as serving on the Faculty Senate. He is currently advisor for the Philosophy Club.
Education
Ph.D., Temple University
M.A., University of Warwick
B.A., Sonoma State University
Dr. Crippen wrote his dissertation on the topic of the intersection of history and the individual in the Pragmatic philosophical tradition. His areas of interest include the central themes in German and American Philosophy. He is an active member of the American Philosophical Association and the Society for the Advancement of American Philosophy, and regularly attends and presents at conferences internationally.
Professor Martha Smith, Ph.D.
Professor of Religious Studies
Department Chair
714.992.7517
Office: 1422.03
msmith@fullcoll.edu
Dr. Smith has been a professor of Religious Studies since 2005. She was hired to a full-time position at Fullerton College in Fall 2020. Prior to that, she has taught around the country, in Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee, and California.
Education
Ph.D. Religious Studies, University of California, Santa Barbara
M.A. Religious Studies, Missouri State University
B. A. Religious Studies and German, Missouri State University
Dr. Smith’s area of expertise is North American religions and cultures, and she teaches classes on all religious traditions. Her primary research is a critical analysis of post-racial and post-ethnic theories of American religious pluralism and extending this analysis to critical pedagogies of religious studies. Dr. Smith is also working on a co-authored manuscript analyzing the various spiritualities emerging within the hula hooping subculture in the United States. Her work has been published in the journal Nova Religio, as well as in several edited volumes. Dr. Smith has served as the Executive Secretary/Treasurer for the North American Association for the Study of Religion (NAASR), and on the Board for the Institute for Diversity and Civic Life (IDCL) in Austin, Texas. She is an active member in the American Academy of Religion (AAR) as well.
Professor Patrick Ryan
Professor of Philosophy
Office: 1422.02
pryan@fullcoll.edu
Professor Ryan joined Fullerton College as full-time faculty in Fall 2025. He has taught philosophy since 2014.
Education
A.B.D Philosophy, University of California, Riverside
M.A. Philosophy, University of California, Riverside
B. A. Philosophy, University of New Hampshire
Professor Ryan hopes to help address two broad questions through his teaching and research: what gets in the way of successful reasoning, and what can we do to make ourselves more productive reasoners? To do so, he studies Critical Philosophy (a tradition begun by Immanuel Kant that explores the limits of reasoning), the nature of mental disorder, and the impediments to learning to reason well. He co-founded the SoCal Pragmatist Forum, which organizes biannual events. He is working on two ongoing course-related initiatives that students and the public are encouraged to join. First, Dissensus is a research and civic engagement project that translates academic research into strategies that those who shape our disagreement culture can use to make disagreements more productive. Second, he hosts a reading group on underrepresented philosophical traditions to help make intro-level philosophy courses representative of world philosophy.