Course Overview
We live in an era defined by unprecedented urban expansion—where more than half of humanity now calls the city home. Urban spaces have become the crucibles of political struggle, economic transformation, and cultural creativity. They are also the primary sites where global flows of people, capital, and ideas converge, and reshape the lived landscape. This course investigates the diverse geographies of urbanization across the world, exploring how historical trajectories, power relations, and environmental conditions shape distinctive urban forms and experiences. Through a world-regional lens, we will trace the interconnected processes that link cities across the Global North and South, examining how global and local forces co-produce urban change across the world.
Drawing on case studies from multiple continents, students will engage foundational theories in urban geography while exploring key intersections among political, economic, cultural, and environmental dimensions of city life. By the end of the course, students will be able to critically analyze urbanization as a spatial and socio-political process—developing a nuanced understanding of place, power, and inequality in the making of contemporary urban worlds. Emphasis will be placed on interpreting current events and urban transformations in major cities across diverse world regions.
All students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Completion and have the opportunity to request a Syracuse University credit transcript.
Learning Objectives
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Identify major patterns of urbanization across world regions and explain the historical, political, and economic forces that have shaped them.
- Analyze how U.S. urban development and global capitalism are intertwined with urban processes in the Global South and other parts of the world.
- Examine how international flows of labor, capital, technology, and culture connect American cities to global urban networks.
- Interpret the uneven geographies of power, inequality, and environmental change that shape urban life globally and locally.
- Compare diverse models of urban governance, planning, and infrastructure, and assess how they reflect different political and economic systems.
- Critically evaluate media and policy narratives about “global cities,” development, and modernization from multiple world perspectives.
- Develop spatial literacy and a sense of global citizenship by situating American urban experiences within broader planetary urban transformations.
Course Information
Course Prefix and Number: GEO 105
Format: Online
Eligibility: Students must be of rising high school junior or senior status – or a 2026 high school graduate.
Credit: 3 credits
Grading: A-F
Cost: $3,165
Program rates are subject to change and will be approved by the board of trustees. Discounts and scholarships are also available.
Program Information
Summer College – Online: Explore college life before stepping foot on campus! High school students can enroll in a college-level course, pursue their academic interests, and meet likeminded students in daily virtual events and activities.
Course Dates and Details
| Program | Course Dates | Synchronous Class Time (Eastern Time) | Credit/Noncredit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer College -Online | 3-Week Session II: Monday, July 27 – Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026 | MTWTh; 9 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | 3 credits |
To see if this course is ‘open,’ refer to the full course catalog.
Required Supplies
Textbook Requirement:
- Brunn, S. et al. (2020). Cities of the World: Regional Patterns and Urban Environments. Seventh Edition. Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield
Additional Supply Requirements:
- Students will need to have access to a laptop/computer with a reliable connection to the internet, along with a working laptop/computer camera and microphone.
Typical Day
Tentative Schedule
Morning First Block (9:00 a.m. – 10:30 pm)
Students will participate in interactive lectures, covering key concepts such as global urbanization, regional urban patterns, particular world regions, and globalization, inequality, and urban governance. Lectures will be delivered in shorter segments and interspersed with questions, polls, and brief activities.
Break (15 minutes)
Morning Second Block (10:45 am – 12:30 pm )
The interactive lecture continues through comparative case studies of world cities and regional urban processes. The final one hour of this block will be dedicated to instructor-led discussion, where students critically engage with readings, maps, media, and current events, and examine how U.S. cities are interconnected with urban systems across the world
When class is over, and on weekends, students can look forward to various Summer College virtual activities to meet and connect with other students across the world. Check out our Virtual Campus Experience page for more information!
Faculty Bios
Avia Nahreen
I am an urban geographer whose research explores the politics of water, infrastructure, and everyday life in South Asian cities, with a particular focus on Dhaka, Bangladesh. My work engages with questions of justice, ecology, and urban transformation through the lenses of political ecology and southern urbanism—approaches that foreground knowledge, experience, and theory emerging from the Global South.
Drawing on ethnographic and spatial research, I examine how urban residents negotiate water scarcity, informality, and governance within rapidly changing environments. My scholarship highlights how urban life in South Asia interacts with dominant, Euro-American models of urban theory, offering new ways to understand cities as lived, contested, and co-produced spaces.
In the classroom, I try to bring these perspectives to the study of World Urban Geography, guiding students to see cities as interconnected sites of global processes and local struggles. I invite learners to think critically about how American urbanization is entangled with urban transformations elsewhere—through flows of capital, climate, and care—and to view Southern urbanism/Global urbanism as a vital signifier for reimagining what the “urban” means in a global context.