Course Overview
We’re constantly thinking in terms of “culture” though we struggle to define it. Culture is simultaneously what’s traditional (memorials, customs) and what’s cutting edge (“TikTok culture,” “gamer culture,” etc.). It names art, entertainment, language, food, religion, and so on – all those finer things in life beyond the daily grind — yet we can’t help but express gritty political and economic conflict through culture and identity politics (e.g. counterculture, cultural appropriation, wokeness, cancel culture, etc.).
But what is “culture”? Why has it become so important to how we understand the world around us? How does what we call “culture” change? How does culture manifest in struggles for social, political, economic, and spatial equality? What does geography have to do with how culture works, and does thinking about culture geographically give us a different understanding of it? GEO272 addresses these and other questions about something called culture. These are heady, thorny questions. Given the conceptual flabbiness of “culture,” any worthwhile interrogation requires that we confront how power is arrayed in society (i.e. who rules over whom) and, thereafter, how “culture” manifests as a tool of both domination and resistance.
All students who successfully complete the course will receive a Certificate of Completion and have the opportunity to request a Syracuse University credit or noncredit transcript.
Learning Objectives – TBD
Course Information
Course Prefix and Number: GEO 272 / SCN TBD
Format: On Campus (at Syracuse University)
Eligibility: Students must be of rising high school sophomore* junior, or senior status – or a 2025 high school graduate.
*Rising sophomores are only eligible for the noncredit version of this course.
Credit: 3 credits or noncredit
Grading:
- Credit: A-F
- Noncredit: Pass/Fail
Cost:
3 Credits:
- Residential: $4,895
- Commuter: $3,919
Noncredit:
- Residential: $4,295
- Commuter: $3,318
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 – On Campus: Experience what college is really like: take a college-level course, live in a residence hall, have meals with friends in a dining hall, and participate in activities and events on campus.
Course Dates and Details
| Program | Course Dates | Class Time (Eastern Time) | Credit/Noncredit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Summer College – On Campus | 2-Week Session I: Sunday, July 6 – Friday, July 18, 2025 | MTWThF; 9 a.m. – 4 p.m. | 3 credits or Noncredit |
To see if this course is ‘open,’ refer to the full course catalog.
Course Requirements
Required Supplies
There are no textbook or supply requirements for this course. All readings will be available through Blackboard.
Typical Day
Tentative Schedule
Each class will typically consist of two lectures, each followed by a wide variety of in-class activities and robust group discussions on key issues and those students find most compelling.
- 9 – 10 a.m.: Lecture 1
- 10 – 10:50 a.m.: Discussion and/or in-class activity
- 10:50 – 11 a.m.: Break
- 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.: Lecture 2
- 12 – 1pm: Discussion and/or in-class activity
When class is over, and on weekends, students can look forward to various Summer College – On Campus activities to meet and connect with other students! Check out our On Campus Experience page for more information!
Faculty Bios
Brian Hennigan
Dr. Brian Hennigan earned his PhD in 2022 from the Department of Geography & the Environment in the Maxwell School for Citizenship & Public Affairs at Syracuse University. After graduation, Hennigan worked as a union organizer with Service Employees International Union, successfully unionizing Syracuse University’s graduate workers and clerical staff. The following year, Hennigan worked with the Massachusetts Teachers Association representing faculty and librarians at the University of Massachusetts – Amherst before returning to Syracuse University as an Instructor of Geography.
Prior to working as a union organizer, Hennigan undertook three major research projects focused on the intersection of the housing and labor markets: homelessness policy in Phoenix, AZ; welfare-to-work programs in Syracuse, NY; and the rise of the so-called “tiny house movement” across the United States. Across these varied projects, Hennigan’s findings show how the “American Dream” of homeownership and a good job is more and more an unrealizable relic of a bygone era. In lieu of effective political resistance to these economic trends, the downwardly mobile working- and middle-class confront and find cultural compensation within discourses that rebrand budget-housing as eco-friendly minimalism, bad jobs as tests of moral fortitude, and anti-social government policies as entrepreneurial self-reliance.
Dr. Hennigan’s teaching challenges students to actively struggle with and make sense of course material, facilitating such learning by devising activities that engage them in the tasks of evaluating, analyzing, synthesizing, and using this knowledge. Among other strategies to accomplish these teaching goals, Hennigan incorporates robust role playing-based discussions and reflections into lesson plans. Through playing their role, students do not just learn concepts. Rather, these concepts and ideas become tools, the raw material that they must use to achieve their individual and collective goals.