History
2025-2026 Program Review

The History Department offers students a rich diversity of courses in a variety of modalities that include in-person, hybrid, and online. Survey courses in World History, History of Europe, and United States history help students fulfill General Education transfer requirements. Additionally, the History Department offers courses that address specific regions and populations around the world that also fulfill graduation and transfer requirements. Courses include the study of African-American history, Asian/Pacific Islander History, Chicano/Mexican-American History, Native American History, Women in American History, and California History. The department’s global focus includes courses addressing the history of the Islamic World, Asian Civilizations, Latin America, Mexico, and Russia. Furthermore, the History Department offers honors courses in United States History. The History Department's curriculum promotes critical thinking, creative problem solving, evaluation of evidence, and development of clear communication skills. History faculty are committed to serving our students and college community, both in and outside the classroom, by contributing to the discipline of history and promoting connections with our regional communities.

Based on the Data on Demand information, for most of our courses, African American, Students Below Poverty Level, and Hispanic/Latino are disproportionally impacted. At the same time, course success for History has increased from 61% in Fall 2022 to 69% in Fall 2024; moreover, Non Success decreased from 19% in Fall 2022 to 15% in Fall 2024. Regarding Course Success for African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American Students (Historically Disproportionately Impacted Populations at ARC), Success increased from 58% in Fall 2022 to 66% in Fall 2024; Non Success decreased from 21% in Fall 2022 to 19% in Fall 2024. Looking specifically at Success by Race/Ethnicity, African American success increased from 56% in Fall 2022 to 59% in Fall 2024, and Hispanic/Latino success increased from 59% in Fall 2022 to 68% in Fall 2024.

Faculty members in our department continue to pursue professional development opportunities. Several faculty members, both full and part-time, completed the Association of College and University Educators Effective Teaching Practices year-long courses for both in-person and online teaching. 

The History Department has taken a serious look at the courses we teach and how we teach them to move away from Euro-centric and colonial perspectives. With this in mind, the ARC History Department initiated the process of doing away with “Western Civilization” courses in Los Rios and replacing it with two courses on the History of Europe: History of Europe and the Mediterranean to 1500 and History of Europe Since 1500. This change was accomplished with collaboration from the History Departments at Sacramento City College, Folsom Lake College and Cosumnes River College.

The department has redesigned both U.S. History Survey courses, HIST 310 (now HIST C1001) and HIST 311 (now HIST C1002), to be more inclusive. The courses now supplement the primary American Yawp textbook by integrating specific materials and perspectives relevant to the historical experiences of immigrants and other ethnic groups, ensuring the content is more reflective of our diverse student body.

The department also divided an existing Women in American History course into two courses that provide students with an opportunity to explore women’s history through a more inclusive and intersectional lens, while also supporting a deeper exploration of the historical context that reduces disadvantages for students with limited or no prior study of US History. 

One department member uninitialized a sabbatical to conduct and complete an oral history project completed examining the experiences of LGBTQ+ students while attending American River College. Moreover, faculty in our department continue to pursue the development and acquisition of affordable or zero cost textbooks to reduce financial burdens to students.

The History Department demonstrates its commitment to serving our student populations by providing culturally relevant courses and hiring faculty members with similar lived experiences to our diverse student populations. As Such, along with having full-time faculty who teach courses in Women’s History, Latin American and Chicane History, and Asian American History, the department recently hired a full-time faculty member to teach African American History, and a full-time faculty member to teach and expand our Native American History offerings. In Spring 2026, the department will also move to hire a full-time faculty member to teach and expand our History of the Islamic World offerings.

The History Department is committed to evaluating the content and materials used in our courses to ensure that we are providing culturally relevant curriculum while promoting liberation and honoring the dignity, humanity, and contributions of all members of our community.

We will strive to ensure that we are offering enough classes to satisfy the demand of disproportionately impacted students, including online, and early morning and evening classes, when marginalized students might need to attend classes in higher numbers. The History Department will also continue to emphasize instruction of academic skills, such as writing thesis statements for history essays, using MLA and Chicago-Style citations to cite historical evidence, structuring history essays, enhancing reading comprehension for history texts, primary-document analysis, effective notetaking, study habits, and time management, along with critical and ethical use on online resources – including AI platforms. Furthermore, the department has moved toward reducing financial barriers by adopting more Zero-Textbook-Cost (ZTC) / Open Educational Resources (OER) in our courses; directly removing the financial barrier of an expensive textbook for students.

With the closure of Davies Hall, the History Department’s faculty have struggled to find classrooms that effectively promote interactive learning such as group or partnered student discussions. Moreover, the classrooms that have been available have not always possessed the technology needed for innovative and high-quality instruction. The History Department believes in ARC President Cardoza’s philosophy of Students First. As such, the History Department needs designated classrooms with working HVAC units and technology that offer our students a welcoming, comfortable, and safe learning environment. Moreover, the continued administrative assumption that History courses should have a 45 student cap is counterproductive to an equitable and effective learning experience for our students – especially those facing disproportionate impact.  

Without a doubt, the History Department and our students continue to live with the effects of the Davies Hall closure, from the elimination of designated classrooms to specific and permanent offices. Both History-specific classrooms and designated faculty offices are vital to the learning environment of students and the working environment of faculty. At the end of the day, faculty working conditions are directly linked to student learning conditions and outcomes.