Seminars

UC San Diego offers one-unit first-year and senior seminars, CAT 87 and CAT 192 respectively, to provide students with an opportunity to meet with faculty in a small-class environment. They are taught by senior UC San Diego faculty and researchers and are limited to twenty students. The seminars are taught by faculty in their fields of expertise and explore topics of intellectual importance. Students participate in critical discussion with a small group of peers and faculty. Topics differ every quarter.

CAT 88 is part of UC San Diego's Learning Sustainable Well-Being (LSW) program. LSW is sponsored by the T. Denny Sanford Institute for Empathy and Compassion in collaboration with the Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor.

CAT 90 is a one-unit reflection seminar designed for students who engage in summer experiential learning activities and would like to apply these activities towards the experiential learning requirement. Please note that only Dr. Geibel's course offered each fall quarter fulfills the requirement; other versions of CAT 90 do not satisfy the experiential learning requirement.

Authorization requests for CAT 90, CAT 87, and CAT 192 can be submitted through the Enrollment Authorization System.

Spring 2026

CAT 88: Learning Sustainable Well-Being: The Narrative and Rhetoric of Compassion

Liz Popko

Assistant Teaching Professor, CAT

Monday 11:00 a.m.-12:20 p.m.

This experiential course explores how storytelling and language contribute to psychological well-being. Through a variety of narrative and rhetorical practices (reading, journaling, discussion, performance, creating, etc.) we examine the relationship between narration, rhetoric, and mental/social health. Each week there is discussion on a specific topic and workshop-style exercises.