Yale University is in the process of creating a course dedicated to the study of Beyoncé.
Starting this spring semester, Yale will offer a class titled “Beyoncé Makes History: The History, Culture, Theory, and Politics of the Black Radical Tradition Through Music.” The goal, according to the course description, is to use her work as a lens through which to examine Black intellectual thought and activity.
With universities around the world accepting classes on the cultural influence of celebrities such as Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga, the theme focuses on global music superstars and is inspired by pop culture. This is the latest university course to be undertaken.
Tracing Beyoncé’s innovations and influences from her 2013 self-titled album to her latest, “Cowboy Carter,” students will analyze her albums, performance politics, and concert films.
By examining her mid-career repertoire, a new course at Yale will explore scholarly writings and cultural texts spanning black feminist theory, philosophy, and anthropology, as well as art history, performance studies, and musicology. This is stated in the course description.
This class will be taught by author and Black researcher Daphne Brooks. He is a co-founder of Yale University’s Black Sounds & Archives Working Group, a community of faculty and students dedicated to “exploring the untapped and diverse Black sound archives.”
Brooks said in an email that the course has been in the works for years. Brooks, who previously taught a course at Princeton University titled “Black Women and Popular Music Culture,” said this will be her first opportunity to dedicate an entire lecture course to Beyoncé’s work.
“I look forward to exploring her body of work and considering, among other things, how historical memory, Black feminist politics, and Black liberation politics and philosophy have shifted throughout the past decade of her performance repertoire.” ” Brooks wrote. Her unprecedented experimentation with the album format itself provided her with a platform to mobilize these themes. ”
The course joins Yale in a string of universities that have offered Beyoncé-inspired courses over the past decade or so.
Courses on the star’s political and cultural influence have been around since the early 2010s, including Rutgers University’s “The Politicization of Beyoncé” class and the University of Illinois at Chicago’s “Beyoncé: Critical Feminist Perspectives and Black Womanhood in the United States.” ” courses, etc.
Cornell University also offers a version of its “Beyoncé Nation” course that examines her career trajectory and influence on political activism and feminism. Other universities offering similar Beyoncé-themed courses include the University of Texas at San Antonio, California Institute of Technology, and Arizona State University.
And in the wake of Taylor Swift’s re-recording of her album and Elas Tour, which has further expanded her fame in recent years, several universities, including Harvard University, the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Florida, have also signed up for scientific research. We have begun to introduce tailored courses. Her lyricism and pop superstar status.
