Yale University will offer a course on Beyoncé to teach students about Black history through her music.
The course, titled "Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition History, Culture, Theory & Politics through Music," will have students learn about Black intellectual thought, history, culture, fashion and media by dissecting the artist's work, as reported by the Yale Daily News.
The class will be taught by professor of African American Studies and music, Daphne Brooks. She plans to examine Beyoncé's works and major moments from 2013 all the way to 2024 to break down "historical memory, Black feminist politics, Black liberation politics and philosophies," she told NBC News.
"[This class] seemed good to teach because [Beyoncé] is just so ripe for teaching at this moment in time," Brooks told Yale Daily News. "The number of breakthroughs and innovations she's executed and the way she's interwoven history and politics and really granular engagements with Black cultural life into her performance aesthetics and her utilization of her voice as a portal to think about history and politics — there's just no one like her."
The Ivy League school is not the first to offer a course on Beyoncé, though. Similar courses on the artist's impact on culture, politics and feminism have been taught at Rutgers University, the University of Illinois at Chicago and Cornell University, among others.
Courses highlighting the success and cultural shift attributed to other artists have also popped up around the country. A number of universities also began teaching courses on Taylor Swift following the Eras Tour.
Originally published by Music Times.
