Beyonce 101: Yale Will Feature Course On Queen B History
Source: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers / Getty
Beyoncé is already the Grammy’s most-nominated artist of all time. But that’s just one of her many achievements. That and more will be examined in a new course at Yale University.
Yes, the Queen Bee has hit the Ivy League with a one-credit course covering her career from 2013 when she released her self-titled video album with no notice, to the country-themed album Cowboy Carter this year. It’s that album’s 11 nominations that took B over the top surpassing her husband, Jay-Z.
African American Studies professor Daphne Brooks will teach the course called “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music,” in the spring semester. Jordan says the class was inspired by a previous course she taught at Princeton about Black women in popular music. Beyoncé, unsurprisingly, was the most popular artist with her students.
“We’re going to be taking seriously the ways in which the critical work, the intellectual work of some of our greatest thinkers in American culture resonates with Beyoncé’s music and thinking about the ways in which we can apply their philosophies to her work and how it has sometimes been at odds with the “Black radical intellectual tradition,” Brooks told the Associated Press.
Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift and Prince have been covered in college courses. (There is even a syllabus project dedicated to Prince.) Beyoncé has been the subject of other college classes aimed at analyzing her career and pop culture prominence.
But despite her decades in the music business and her many achievements, including 32 Grammy wins, Brooks believes Beyonce’s true legacy is in her cultural impact.
“Can you think of any other pop musician who’s invited an array of grassroots activists to participate in these long-form multimedia album projects that she’s given us since 2013?” Brooks said, adding, “She’s a fascinating artist because historical memory, as I often refer to it, and also the kind of impulse to be an archive of that historical memory, it’s just all over her work. And you just don’t see that with any other artist.”
While you can expect the coveted course will fill up pretty quickly, don’t expect Queen B to Zoom in. There are no current plans to have her participate. But given that the class is using Beyonce’s music, tour footage and more to explore her connection to other Black artists and cultural changemakers, you can expect one of the assignments will be watching the Grammys.
Beyoncé will certainly be there to see if any of the 11 Grammys she’s nominated for for Cowboy Carter will end up in her trophy case. The Grammys will air on CBS on Feb. 2.
Beyonce 101: Yale Will Feature Course On Queen B History was originally published on ionecassius.staging.go.ione.nyc