Student-Led Courses
At CCS, students don't just take classes, they lead them too! From sharing their own knowledge to organizing speakers, students have created courses based on their diverse interests. Explore this page to learn more about past, current, and upcoming student-led courses.
Review the guidelines & eligibility criteria
2026 - 2027
Fall 2027
BIOL CS 5: Exploration of Interdisciplinary Research in Biology
Enroll Code: 67173
Description:
This colloquium offers students the opportunity to explore biological research in primarily non-biology departments at UCSB. Meeting once a week, students will hear from professors and students conducting research in departments like Physics, Anthropology, Psychology, and Geography, all while improving their scientific literacy through guided literature review. This provides an introduction to how concepts in biology produce groundbreaking ideas in adjacent fields, ultimately emphasizing the interdisciplinary nature of scientific research.
This course is designed for students interested in and/or majoring in biology. Students in Chemistry/Biochemistry, Physics, and Marine Science are also encouraged to enroll. High school STEM preparation is highly recommended.
The course is intended for students highly interested in pursuing research during their time at UCSB, especially early career undergraduate students. The class is restricted to enrollment by add code only until late June which is when it will be available to non-upper division undergraduate students. If you are an interested student, please reach out to Colleen (colleenmorris@ucsb.edu) and Sam (sambhavjain@ucsb.edu) requesting an add code!
This is a student-led colloquium led by Colleen Morris and Sambhav Jain under the supervision of Cristine Donham.
Instructor: Led by Colleen Morris and Sambhav Jain under the supervision of Cristine Donham.
CHEM CS 5: Bacterial Anti-Phage Defense Systems
Enroll Code: 69849
Description:
Bacteria and archaea have evolved diverse immune strategies to defend against bacteriophage infection. This student-led colloquium will explore the molecular mechanisms, evolutionary logic, and biological significance of major bacterial anti-phage defense systems, including CRISPR-Cas, retrons, CBASS, defense-associated reverse transcriptase systems, and other emerging antiviral pathways. Through discussion of primary literature, students will examine how these systems detect phage infection, trigger defensive responses, and shape host–phage coevolution.
The course will emphasize mechanistic understanding rather than memorization. Topics may include nucleic acid-guided immunity, abortive infection, cyclic nucleotide signaling, reverse transcriptase-based defense, toxin–antitoxin associated immunity, and the discovery of novel defense islands in bacterial genomes. Students will also consider how studies of bacterial immunity have transformed biotechnology, from genome editing to potential applications in synthetic biology and phage therapy.
By the end of the colloquium, students will gain a broad understanding of bacterial antiviral defense, develop skills in reading and presenting primary research articles, and appreciate how fundamental discoveries in microbial immunity can lead to major conceptual and technological breakthroughs. This course is intended for students interested in microbiology, molecular biology, biochemistry, genetics, evolutionary biology, and biotechnology.
This is a student-led colloquium led by Haowen Deng under the supervision of Anthony De Tomaso.
Instructor: Led by Haowen Deng under the supervision of Anthony De Tomaso.
W&L CS 5: Literature and Moral Philosophy
Enroll Code: 67207
Description:
Within this course we will explore what exactly reading literature as having philosophical merit and reading philosophy outside of the realm of argument does for the practice of each field—how it reopens those whom the field traditionally accepts for new interpretation. Another way of reading this the aim is to see how explore how reading literature philosophically and reading philosophy literarily can do things for our lives. Putting this in the form of a thesis question for the course: how does being in a dialogue with a text reveal what we as readers find important, truthful, and meaningful (as well as the inverse)?
This is a student-led colloquium led by Ethan Woelbern under the supervision of James Donelan.
Instructor: Led by Ethan Woelbern under the supervision of James Donelan.