Yale to Offer a Course on Beyonce

Pop sensation Beyoncé, who has received a record 99 Grammy nominations and is widely regarded as one of the most influential musicians in music history, will be the focus of a new course at Yale University next year.

The one-credit course, titled “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music,” will analyze the years between her 2013 self-titled album and this year’s genre-bending “Cowboy Carter,” as well as how the well-known singer, songwriter, and businesswoman has raised awareness of and participation in social and political causes.

Daphne Brooks, a professor of African American Studies at Yale University, plans to use the performer’s extensive repertoire—which includes video of her live performances—as a “portal” for students to learn about Black thinkers, such as Toni Morrison and Frederick Douglass.

“We’re going to be taking seriously how Beyoncé’s music resonates with the critical and intellectual work of some of our greatest thinkers in American culture and considering how we can apply their philosophies to her work,” Brooks said, adding that it has occasionally been at odds with the “Black radical intellectual tradition.”

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, better known by her stage name, is not the first performer to be the focus of a college-level course. Singer and songwriter Bob Dylan has been the subject of courses over the years, while Taylor Swift, her lyrics, and her impact on pop culture have recently been the subject of seminars at a number of colleges and universities. This includes law academics who want to use a well-known celebrity like Swift to contextualize complex, real-world ideas in order to engage a new generation of attorneys.

With her ability to “spectacularly elevate awareness of and engagement with grassroots, social, political ideologies and movements” through her music, such as the Black Lives Matter movement and Black feminist criticism, Brooks believes Beyoncé is in a class by herself.

Brooks said, “Is there another pop artist that has invited a wide range of grassroots activists to take part in these long-form multimedia album projects that she’s given us since 2013?” Beyoncé has also attempted to use her music to convey a tale about “race and gender and sexuality in the context of the 400-year-plus history of African-American subjugation,” she pointed out.

She is an intriguing artist, according to Brooks, since her work is permeated with historical memory, as I frequently call it, as well as the desire to serve as an archive of that memory. “With no other artist, you simply don’t see that.”

At Princeton University, Brooks had previously given a popular class on Black women in popular music culture, and she found that her students were particularly enthusiastic about the section on Beyoncé. Although she hopes her Yale class will be particularly well-liked, she is making an effort to keep the class number modest.

If someone is lucky enough to acquire a seat next semester, they shouldn’t expect to see Queen Bey live.

“I would definitely try to take the class to see her if she were on tour, so it’s too bad,” Brooks remarked.

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