CAT 124

CAT 124 courses bring together an interdisciplinary faculty to expound on culture, art, and technology themes, examining different topics each quarter, through distinct experiential learning opportunities. These classes fulfill the experiential learning requirement and are open to students in all departments and fields. Students must request departmental approval through the Enrollment Authorization System in order to enroll in CAT 124.

Spring 2024 Courses

Partnerships for Local Climate Action: The UCSD EarthLab Community Station

Amy Knight

Associate Instructor, CAT

Friday 1:00-3:50 p.m.

Have you ever wanted to engage in local, equity-focused climate action? The San Diego/Tijuana border region is one of extremes, both in terms of climate and social inequity. In the backdrop of California's record-setting drought, increasing days of extreme heat are paired with dangers of flash floods from more intense winter storms. Communities with fewer resources are hit harder by climate events and must recover with less. The mission of the UCSD Community Stations is to foster relationships between the university and communities to facilitate collective, equity-focused climate action. This course is born from that mission, taking a distinctly social, community-based approach to climate action. In the classroom, we will consider the complex problem of climate change alongside a wide range of solutions. We will aim to understand climate justice as both a concept and within the larger context of our region. Ultimately, we will be challenged to think differently about how we live alongside and relate to one another. In the field, we will engage local middle school students through climate education co-created with our community partner, Groundwork San Diego-Chollas Creek, based in the Southeast San Diego neighborhood of Encanto. The practicum will culminate in students designing and leading an educational activity at the UCSD EarthLab Community Station. Carpools will be set up in the beginning of the quarter. The field site is also accessible via the UC San Diego Blue Line Trolley. For more information about the UCSD Community Stations, see https://gjustice.ucsd.edu/ucsd-community-stations/.

This CAT 124 class can fulfill upper-division Sociology major and minor requirements and Anthropology: Climate Change and Human Solutions major electives through student petition.

View the Spring 2023 highlights of this CAT 124 course!

Summer Session II 2024 Courses

Making Space: Radical Literary Movements and Community-Making through 'Zines and Lit Mags

Becca Rose

Associate Instructor, CAT

Tuesday/Thursday 3:00-4:50 p.m.

What experiences have you longed to see represented in books, magazines, journals, comics? In what ways do you think art and literature can influence identity, can forge community, can change a life? In this experiential learning course, we will explore these questions both by learning about literature and creating our own. In the classroom, we will engage with readings, lecture, and discussion that will focus on learning about the systemic and structural inequalities of the publishing industry that has and continues to favor white, male, cis, heteronormative, neurotypical, and able-bodied people, but more particularly we will devote ourselves to learning about the community-centered movements, presses, and projects (such as Kitchen Table Press, the Riot Grrrl zine movement, present-day Rowhouse Publishing, and more) that have and continue to challenge those industry norms and create space for more voices in literature (while also critiquing any further failings of representation within some movements). For the experiential component of the course, we will put this space-making into practice ourselves: we will make literature and form community within and outside of the classroom through the creation and sharing of the collective final project—a literary arts magazine (or 'zine). As such, this course isn't just about histories—this course is about what kind of literature you want in the world. Please note that "community-making" is in the title with intention. This course has a significant group work component that will require both in class and out of class collaboration.

View the Summer 2023 highlights of this CAT 124 course!