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.

Winter 2026

CAT 87: "It's the End of the World as We Know It": Technology, Science, and the Filmic Politics of Disaster

Phoebe Bronstein

Associate Teaching Professor, CAT

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

This first-year seminar will examine disaster and post-apocalyptic media from The Incredible Shrinking Man to The Day After Tomorrow, Independence Day, and Wall-E. Each week, we will use a different film or reading to tackle how disaster is narrated with special attention to how anxieties about the intersections of technology—like the atomic bomb—and politics are articulated on-screen. My hope for this class is to discuss, analyze, and argue about how films depict disaster and to what end.

CAT 87: Byte-Sized Stories: Exploring the World of Podcasting

Romain Delaville

Assistant Teaching Professor, CAT

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

Ever wonder how podcasts manage to hook us, move us, or even change the way we think? This first-year seminar tunes into the world of podcasting to explore how it is reshaping the way we tell, listen to, and experience stories. As traditional narrative forms transition into digital spaces, they encounter both exciting possibilities and new challenges, from amplifying voices historically excluded from public discourse to navigating the influence of monetization on creative choices. As we examine how podcasting draws on and disrupts storytelling conventions, we will focus on sound as a form of argument: how tone, pacing, sound effects, and silence shape not only emotion but also trust, credibility, and intimacy. Students will critically analyze a variety of podcasts and produce their own, developing essential skills in interviewing, workflow, scriptwriting, recording, and post-production mixing. No prior technical experience is required.