CAT 125 and CAT 125R

CAT 125 and CAT 125R courses (four units, every quarter) are upper-division writing and communication classes in which students focus on translating skills developed in lower-division writing courses into writing after college and public rhetoric. CAT 125R is the online version of CAT 125; only one of these two courses must be taken to fulfill the upper-division writing requirement. Students must have completed the lower-division writing sequence—CAT 1, CAT 2, and CAT 3—in order to enroll in CAT 125 or CAT 125R.

Winter 2025 Courses

CAT 125 and CAT 125R courses are taught in small seminars of twenty students. All seminars are structured around the following course description, with individualized descriptions for each instructor provided below.

In this public rhetoric and practical communication course, we will use media narratives from stand-up to documentary film and television episodes to explore how we tell our personal, professional, and political stories. The narratives we'll engage with, from Nanette to Gloria Andalúa's writings and the 1619 Project, will situate personal stories, research, and expertise within broader histories and geopolitics, mobilizing rhetorical devices from humor and emotion to lighting and costuming. The texts we watch will serve as (fun, hopefully) springboards to discuss different topics and rhetorical strategies and how to play with those same strategies in our own self-presentation.

The course will be part discussion and part writing workshop, driving towards helping you think through your future plans from graduation to life after college, from graduate school to getting a job you want/like. Part of this will entail using reflective strategies for reading, watching, and listening rhetorically—being mindful of contexts, messages, and audiences. You will also practice several modes of rhetorical speaking and writing, making decisions about content and structure to inform, persuade, or tell a story as you hone your voice and style. Finally you will develop strategic plans, turn your goals into actions, and discuss and develop work-life balance. Exercises and assignments are loosely structured so as to allow you to compose texts that will support your present and/or future life hopes and goals, while highlighting different stages of the writing process, from pre-writing and drafting to peer review and collaborative revision.

CAT 125: Stories About Place, Memory, and Identity

Matthew Irwin

Lecturer, CAT

In an essay titled "New Ethnicities," Stuart Hall writes, "[W]e all speak from a particular place, out of a particular history, out of a particular experience, a particular culture, without being contained by that position...." In this CAT 125 course, we will examine memoirs and essays exploring the influence of place and memory on identity—both how we position ourselves and how others position us. Mindful of Hall's observation that "new ethnicities" emerge out of combined, remixed, "unsettled" experiences and histories, we will also write our own stories and observations on movement, migration, settlement, and staying as forms of cultural experience and creation attached to place. This is a four-unit, upper-division writing and communication class in which students focus on translating skills developed in lower-division writing courses into writing after college and public rhetoric.

CAT 125: In Our Feelings: Emotions and Public Rhetoric

Jennifer Marchisotto

Lecturer, CAT

From political speeches to online fan communities to the Hallmark Channel, we all consume media for both education and pleasure—affecting how we move through the world in both direct and indirect ways. In this CAT 125 course, we will think about how rhetorical choices (made by both ourselves and others) shape written presentations of the self, and critically reflect on how those choices contribute to our public identities as we move within and between larger communities. Drawing on work in affect theory, we will analyze popular written and visual texts to better understand the way media and pop culture evoke and manipulate audiences' emotions for specific purposes. With a better understanding of the affective relationship between author/creator and audience, you will reflect on your own position as a rhetorical subject and more confidently make effective choices in your own writing. Whether you are preparing for graduate school, or plan to enter the workforce following graduation, you will be presenting yourself to new audiences through written and spoken words. Job applications, personal statements, even e-mails all tell stories about who we are. In this course, we will specifically look at the way seemingly private emotions are shaped through public rhetoric and popular culture.

CAT 125: Making Stories Visible: Materiality and Form

Maya VanderSchuit

Lecturer, CAT

In this public rhetoric and practical communication course, we will use a variety of narratives and art to explore how we make visible our personal, professional, and political stories. The media and art we'll engage with, from Rae Tajiri's documentary History and Memory to Gloria Andalúa's writings to Fred Wilson's object assemblages, will situate personal stories, research, and expertise within broader histories and geopolitics, by exploring their materiality and form as rhetorical strategies. The works we read, or look at, will invite you to discuss different topics and rhetorical devices and how to utilize similar strategies in your own self-presentation.

CAT 125R: Navigating Social Barriers through Public Rhetoric

Celeste Morales

Lecturer, CAT

This iteration of CAT 125 prioritizes applied rhetoric and real-world challenges. This course delves into the broader discipline of social dynamics and communication, with a focus on how public rhetoric influences, creates, and dismantles social barriers. Students will investigate current social issues, learning how to navigate through and challenge social barriers in real time, both online and in person. What sets this class apart is its unique approach to public rhetoric as a tool for activism and change. Instead of analyzing speeches or media, students will participate in hands-on projects that require them to craft and deliver rhetoric aimed at dismantling social barriers, fostering inclusion, and advocating for marginalized communities. This practical approach empowers students to not only critique rhetoric and see the atypical experiences of others, but also to become agents of social transformation themselves.

CAT 125R: Creativity: Within and Around

Lauryn Smith

Lecturer, CAT

Creativity is present in our everyday lives, from the airplanes flying overhead to the music we listen to, to the clothing we put on in the morning. For example, consider skateboarding: the board you ride on to class is the product of years of experimentation, development, customization, and artistic self-expression. There is a story within the board of a changing culture, community, and a passion for movement. We will dissect this example and many others together throughout the quarter. In this class you will read, watch, and listen to various pieces of media from music videos to podcasts to memoirs to poems and analyze them through the lens of creativity. You will have assignments geared towards preparing you for what comes next, whether that is graduate school or the workforce, and you will have a chance to consider what role creativity might play in your present and future life. The projects in this course are flexibly structured so you can use them in whatever way will most benefit you.

CAT 125R: The Myth of the Self, the Myth of Time

Adriana Tosun

Lecturer, CAT

How do we create time? How do we create ourselves—how do we invent narratives that describe who we are? How do we use time to do it? And how does the time in which we exist inform how we are able to invent ourselves? In this public rhetoric and practical communication course, we will investigate personal and professional storytelling, and the surprising and political ways such stories overlap with cultural conceptions of time. Through reflective writing, discussion, and creative workshops, we will investigate the temporal and social context of narratives from '00s reality TV to queer stand-up comedy to Black womanist theory, as well as the methods each author or performer uses to create a "self" on the page or screen. We will also briefly study each text's temporal understanding, in addition to the period of history during which each text was created. After developing a greater understanding of your own temporal and social context, you will practice creating your own "selves" in a variety of textual and audiovisual contexts, and compose texts employing rhetorical strategies to support your present and future life goals.