with a He has received 99 Grammy nominations and hailed as the most influential artist in music history, pop superstar Beyoncé and her vast cultural legacy will be the subject of a new course at Yale University next year.
“Beyoncé makes history: tradition, culture, black radical theory & Politics Through Music,” the one-credit class will focus on the period between his 2013 self-titled album and this year’s genre challenge. “Cowboy Carter” and how the world-class singer, songwriter and activist has created awareness and commitment to social and political ideologies.
Yale University Professor of African American Studies Daphne Brooks wants to use performer Daphne Brooks’ extensive repertoire, including footage of her live performances, as a “portal” for students to learn about black intellectuals, from Frederick Douglass to Toni Morrison.
“We’re going to take seriously the critical work, the ways the intellectual work of some of our greatest thinkers in American culture resonates with Beyoncé’s music, and we’re going to think about the ways their philosophies apply to her work,” and how she’s sometimes been at odds with the “black radical intellectual tradition,” Brooks said.
Beyoncé, whose full name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, is not the first performer to be the subject of a college course. There have been courses about the singer and songwriter Bob Dylan over the years and more recently at various colleges and universities. He offered lessons about the singer Taylor Swift and its lyrics and pop culture legacy. It includes law professors who hope to engage a new generation of lawyers by using a famous celebrity like Swift to bring context to complicated real-world concepts.
Professors at other colleges and universities have also incorporated Beyoncé into their courses or offered classes about the superstar.
Brooks sees Beyoncé in a league of her own, thanks to the singer’s platform to “visibly raise awareness and engagement with grassroots, social, political ideologies and movements” in her music, including the Black Lives Matter movement and Black feminist commentary.
“Can you remember any other pop musicians who have invited so many grassroots activists to participate in these full-length multimedia album projects that they’ve given us since 2013,” Brooks asked. Beyoncé stated that she has tried to tell a story through her music. “race and gender and sexuality in the context of the 400-year history of African-American subjugation.”
“He’s a fascinating artist, the historical memory, as I often mention, and also the kind of impulse to be an archive of that historical memory, because it’s in all of his work,” Brooks said. “And you don’t see that with any other artist.”
Previously, Brooks taught a well-received class on black women’s popular music culture at Princeton University and her students were thrilled with the segment dedicated to Beyoncé. He hopes his class at Yale will be especially popular, but he’s trying to keep the group size relatively small.
Those who manage to snag a seat next semester shouldn’t get their hopes up about seeing Queen Bey in person.
“It’s too bad, if he was on tour, I would definitely try to take the class to see him,” Brooks said.
