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.

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

Fall 2025

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.

CAT 90: Experiential Learning Seminar

Bill Robertson Geibel

Assistant Teaching Professor, CAT

Monday 12:00-12:50 p.m.

The purpose of CAT 90 is encouraging growth through facilitated reflection and analysis of students' experiential learning activities. Through guided prompts, discussions, and written reflections students will investigate their own perspectives, assumptions, and values and evaluate how these things informed their experience. Towards the end of the course, students will be asked to engage in reflection for action, a practice focused on improving student success by applying their cultivated knowledge to future career and academic decisions.

Spring 2025

CAT 87: Make 'Em Laugh: A Celebration of Funny Ladies From Lucille Ball to Ali Wong

Phoebe Bronstein

Associate Teaching Professor, CAT

Monday 1:00-1:50 p.m.

From I Love Lucy to Ali Wong and Sarah Silverman, this course will examine the often unruly and always hilarious ladies of comedy. We will talk about humor as both culturally and historically located, inflected by ideas about race, class, gender, and sexuality. Potential screenings will include (but are not limited to) I Love Lucy, Baby Cobra, I Love You America, Spy, The Mindy Project, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.