First-year Seminar Program
Fall Quarter 2026 Enrollment Information
First-year Seminars are open first to all first-year students including first-year freshman with sophomore standing during the first-year student enrollment period. Incoming first-year students with sophomore standing should use the campus Course Pre-Authorization system to be cleared to enroll in a seminar and then use WebReg to enroll in seminars during your enrollment time.
Early enrollment is encouraged due to the small class size.
Visit the Schedule of Classes to see enrollments (select all departments and 87.) Use WebReg to enroll in seminars during your enrollment period.
Sophomores may enroll directly in first-year seminars by using WebReg after the freshman enrollment period and if seats are available.
Please use the campus Course Pre-Authorization system if you have an enrollment question.
Please use the Virtual Advising Center, VAC to contact the advisor of the department or program offering the seminar for all non-enrollment questions.
Department of Anthropology
Chinese Folk Religion
ANTH 87 A00
Section ID:
Jordan, David (
dkjordan@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This course will analyze traditional Chinese religious and “superstitious” practices, including exorcism, canonization, fortune telling, death lore, and “vernacular” Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism. Sources will include folk tales, ethnographic descriptions, popular scriptures, and historical documents.
Chinese Tales and Values
ANTH 87 B00
Section ID:
Jordan, David (
dkjordan@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This course will explore the orientations to life enshrined in some of the most famous stories and myths in Chinese popular culture, analyzed from an anthropological perspective.
Division of Biological Sciences
Feeding the Future: Technologies for Food Security
BILD 87 B00
Section ID:
Gonzalez Gamboa, Ivonne (
igonzalezgamboa@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This seminar explores how advances in biotechnology, nanotechnology, and environmental sensing are transforming modern agriculture and food systems. Students analyze case studies on crop resilience, soil health, precision agriculture, and next-generation agrochemicals, with attention to scientific validation, environmental impact, and the societal implications of these new agricultural technologies.
Professional Skills for College Success
BILD 87 A00
Section ID:
Gonzalez Gamboa, Ivonne (
igonzalezgamboa@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This seminar develops foundational professional skills that support academic and career success at a research university. Through discussion, case studies, and applied exercises, students explore time management, professional communication, teamwork, opportunity seeking, and early career planning. Topics include working effectively in groups, contacting faculty and mentors, identifying internships and fellowships, and preparing professional materials. Emphasis is placed on strategic decision-making during the first year of college.
Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry
Scientific Communication
CHEM 87 A00
Section ID:
Griffith, Kent (
k3griffith@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
Science is much more than being in the lab. Written, graphical, and oral dissemination of research are essential skills. This seminar will cover the landscape of scientific communication from peer-reviewed journal publications to conference presentations to popular science. It is intended to help future researchers to understand the landscape of scientific research and how new discoveries are communicated to other scientists and to the general public.
Department of Computer Science & Engineering
The Fun in Functions
CSE 87 A00
Section ID:
Politz, Joe (
jpolitz@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This seminar will explore the joys and far-reaching applications of programming in a functional style. No programming experience required.
Critical Gender Studies
Gender and Sexuality in Popular Culture
CGS 87 A00
Section ID:
Wesling, Megan (
mwesling@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
We will choose two books on the American Library Association's "Most Banned Books" list and read them together as a book club and community of curious and thoughtful community members. You don't need to be a fast reader or have a lot of experience with book clubs! You just need to have an open and curious mind.
What Is Queer Cinema?
CGS 87 B00
Section ID:
Nguyen, Hoang (
htn057@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
What is “queer”? What is a queer film? How are same-sex desires pathologized and affirmed in different cinematic genres and historical contexts? What role does cinema play in the formation of modern lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans* desires, identities, and movements? This seminar examines the ways in which queers have been rendered in/visible from cinema’s beginning to the present. It seeks to account for how queer subjects have responded to that in/visibility in their construction of queer communities and identities, in particular, through their non-normative viewing practices and their own film production.
Department of Ethnic Studies
Beyond McMindfulness: Spiritual Roots and Social Consequences
ETHN 87 A00
Section ID:
Museus, Samuel (
smuseus@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
Mindfulness has become a multibillion-dollar global industry, shaping how people approach wellness, productivity, and self-care. Yet, as mindfulness is commercialized and repackaged for profit, important elements of its spiritual, ethical, and communal foundations are often lost. In response, this seminar explores the Buddhist roots of mindfulness, emphasizing its grounding in interdependence and responsibility for collective well-being. Through readings, discussion, and contemplative practice, students examine how contemporary forms of mindfulness shape social life and consider what it means to engage mindfulness in ways that cultivate insight and compassion.
What Is Love? Rethinking Desire, Attachment, and Material Symbols
ETHN 87 B00
Section ID:
Museus, Samuel (
smuseus@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
Consumerism and cultural narratives often frame love as individual desire, possession, material gain, or attachment. This seminar explores how Buddhist teachings offer a richer, more grounded understanding of love as a practice rooted in compassion, non-attachment, impermanence, loving-kindness, and interdependence. Through readings, discussion, and contemplative exercises, students examine how social and cultural forces shape relationships and consider how ethical and spiritual approaches to love can guide personal, communal, and social life.
Department of History
Pandemics, Panics, and Plagues: Human Responses to Inhuman Catastrophes
HITO 87 B00
Section ID:
Patterson, Patrick (
p1patterson@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
An exploration of the role that pandemic and epidemic illness has played in human history, focusing on the different ways in which people have responded to their fears, their mortality, their uncertainty about the causes of contagion, and their disastrous losses. We will study contemporaneous accounts from the distant and recent past, coupled with historical analyses and fictional depictions, to understand the struggle to survive, control, and recover from the onslaught of deadly infections.
What Is Socialism? (And What Isn't)
HITO 87 A00
Section ID:
Patterson, Patrick (
p1patterson@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
Socialism has recently become a very hot topic in American politics -- something that people are fighting for and fighting against. Conservatives, libertarians, and others on the political "right" continue their long tradition of rejecting as "socialism" a wide range of policies they do not like. But many progressives and others on the "left," inspired by Bernie Sanders and like-minded activists, have recently started to embrace this label (after running away from it in the past).
Department of Literature
Alejandro González Iñárritu
LTSP 87 B00
Section ID:
Sanchez Cruz, Jorge (
jsanchezcruz@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This seminar analyzes cinematic productions by Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu, from Amores perros (2000), 21 Grams (2003), Babel (2006), Biutiful (2010), to Birdman(2014) and The Revenant (2015).
El español y la gente latina en los Estados Unidos
LTSP 87 A00
Section ID:
Bessett, Ryan (
rbessett@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
En este seminario analizaremos la experiencia de la gente latina en los Estados Unidos, el papel del lenguaje y la cultura en dicha experiencia y la reproducción de las ideologías lingüísticas y culturales en la sociedad estadounidense.
In this seminar we will discuss the experiences of Latinxs in the USA, the role of language and culture in their experiences, and the production of language and cultural ideologies in US society.
Love at First Sight
LTCS 87 C00
Section ID:
Nguyen, Hoang (
htn057@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
The course looks at the relationship between love and time in contemporary romantic comedies. It examines rom-com relationships that follow traditional life courses and those that reject romantic chronology altogether. Films may include 10 Things I Hate about You, 50 First Dates, Love & Basketball, The 40-Year-Old Virgin, Love, Simon, and The Wedding Banquet. Students will learn foundational skills in film analysis.
Department of Mathematics
Teaching Math: The Challenge
MATH 87 A00
Section ID:
Harel, Guershon (
gharel@ucsd.edu)
Location: APM 7321
Wednesdays, 11:00 a.m. to 12:50 p.m.
Seminar will meet Weeks 2,3,4,and 5
Why do so many students seem unable or unwilling to learn mathematics? Which of the difficulties students have in mathematics are due to ineffective instruction and which are inevitable? How can teaching make mathematics stimulating for all students? How can a teaching career be fulfilling?
Department of Philosophy
Biological Sex: Unsettled Mysteries
PHIL 87 A00
Section ID:
Kovaka, Karen (
kkovaka@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This seminar will introduce students to foundational questions about biological sex from an evolutionary perspective. Students will learn what scientists don't yet know about biological sex, and why the answers to the following questions remain mysterious: Why did sex evolve? How many sexes are there? Does biology need sex categories? What drives the evolution of secondary sexual characteristics? Why does menopause exist?
Revelle College
On the Power of Poetry
REV 87 B00
Section ID:
Lyon, Antony (
alyon@ucsd.edu) &
Rodriguez, Bretton (
bsrodriguez@ucsd.edu)
Location: RVCOM C
Thursdays, 11:00 a.m. to 11:50 a.m.
Seminar will meet Weeks 1-10
This seminar takes inspiration from Ada Limón's US Poet Laureate lecture, Against Breaking: On the Power of Poetry, which has been selected as this year’s UC San Diego Common Read. We will read the lecture and some of Limón's poetry before turning to other voices in contemporary poetry.
Science Fiction and Society
REV 87 A00
Section ID:
Rodriguez, Bretton (
bsrodriguez@ucsd.edu)
Location: GH 174
Mondays, 5:00 p.m. to 5:50 p.m.
Seminar will meet Weeks 1-10
In this seminar, we will read foundational works of contemporary science fiction and explore some of the ways that these texts reflect and engage with our modern world. Students will be encouraged to discuss how science fiction both helps us to imagine the future while also providing us with unique insights into the present.
Department of Scripps Institution of Oceanography
Design for the Ocean: How Ocean Instruments Work (and How to Make One)
SIO 87 B00
Section ID:
Allen, Eric (
eallen@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
A hands-on introduction to designing and prototyping for ocean science. Students learn basic design workflows (digital design, 3D printing, laser cutting) and simple sensor-based measurement with a microcontroller. The seminar emphasizes building confidence through iteration and testing in “wet environment” contexts. Students will complete a small, tangible final artifact that combines a fabricated part with a basic sensor readout, along with short documentation of their build and what they lear
Weather in San Diego
SIO 87 A00
Section ID:
Norris, Joel (
jnorris@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This seminar will discuss types of weather in the San Diego region, their causes, and how to read weather maps and satellite images. Topics include Santa Ana winds, marine layer clouds, winter rain, summer thunderstorms, high wave events, and others. A visit will be made to the SIO pier.
The Study of Religion
What Is Worship? On Reverence, Meaning, and Identity
RELI 87 A00
Section ID:
Herbst, Matthew (
mtherbst@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
What Is Worship? This seminar explores worship as a cultural phenomenon through which individuals find meaning, cultivate belonging, and seek pathways for transcendence. Drawing on diverse traditions and practices, the course examines methods of worship such as prayer, movement, and music; sacred spaces including synagogues, temples, churches, and mosques; and the varied forms through which worship is expressed. The seminar considers the relationship between worship and identity—how practices relate to belief, community, and ways of life. The seminar also considers worship in the context of modernity and post-modernity, including how religious practices are continued, adapted, challenged, or displaced in secular and progressive settings. Emphasizing discussion and reflection, the course invites students to think deeply and respectfully about worship as an important (and often marginalized) contemporary practice that can both inspire and unsettle.
Thurgood Marshall College
Genetics and Human Diversity
TMC 87 B00
Section ID:
Lo, Stanley (
smlo@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
How do genetic variations contribute to human diversity (and not), and how can we talk about that science responsibly? This seminar explores genetics, ancestry, society, and human health through discussion-based reading from genomics, social studies of science, and medicine. Together, we will explore how genetics research is conducted, interpreted, and sometimes misused in science and society.
Unlearning Common Sense: Citizenship, Knowledge, and Power
TMC 87 A00
Section ID:
Villegas, Karen (
k1villegas@ucsd.edu)
Location:
TBA
Date and Time:
TBA
Meeting Dates:
TBA
This seminar invites students to critically examine how “common sense” shapes ideas of belonging and citizenship in the United States. Using the U.S. citizenship exam as our entry point, we will explore how everyday notions of common sense are learned to uphold systems of power. In doing so, we will examine whose histories are validated, erased, and co-opted. Together, we will unlearn taken-for-granted assumptions about Empire to question how knowledge is produced and how we might imagine more i