ARC history professor to compete on “Jeopardy!” Professors Tournament

This will be the first-ever “Jeopardy!” professors tournament

Jahson Nahal, Staff Writer|December 5, 2021

American River College history professor Edward Hashima will be competing on “Jeopardy!” for a $100,000 prize and a spot in the upcoming “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions. (Photo courtesy of Edward Hashima)

Edward Hashima has spent 22 years teaching history but will now make history by competing in the first-ever professors tournament on “Jeopardy!”

Hashima will go head to head against 14 other professors from universities across America to win a $100,000 grand prize and a spot in the “Jeopardy!” Tournament of Champions which is scheduled to air in 2022.

Hashima has taught history classes at American River College such as history of the United States, history of Asian/Pacific Americans and American intellectual and cultural history.

Hashima said that it was great to be on “Jeopardy!”

“Once I got there, it sank in, this was a big deal,” Hashima said. “It was the first time they had done something like this.”

Hashima said that most of his preparation leading to the tournament went into studying the rules of the game. 

“You have to answer in the form of a question and the trickiest thing, the one thing that I spent a significant amount of time figuring out was, you have to buzz in before you’re allowed to answer and there’s timing that’s involved with that,” Hashima said.

ARC history professor Joshua Weiner, who has worked with Hashima since 2005, said he thinks Hashima will do well in categories other than history such as music and sports.

“He’s got a massive recollection and encyclopedic knowledge of music history so I imagine he would dominate in that section,” Weiner said. “He also has pretty good sports knowledge.”

Weiner added that Hashima is not letting anyone know about the results.

“From a knowledge standpoint, I would guess that he did really well,” Weiner said.

Hashima said the outcome didn’t matter to him when the tournament finished.

“At the end of the day, for me it was such a unique experience to be there and I got to do it with these really smart and interesting people,” Hashima said. “So the end result, it wasn’t as a big of a deal as everything else.”

The tournament is hosted by Mayim Bialik. It starts Dec. 6 and will air on weekdays until Dec. 17. 

For more information on the “Jeopardy!” Professors Tournament, visit the tournament website here.