Monday, November 11, 2024

Yale Offering a Course on Beyoncé


Yale is offering a course on Beyoncé's political and cultural impact...

From NBC
Yale University is getting in formation with a course dedicated to studying Beyoncé.
Starting this upcoming spring semester, Yale will offer a class titled “Beyonce Makes History: Black Radical Tradition History, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music.” The aim, according to its course description, is to use her work as a lens through which to examine Black intellectual thought and activism.
It’s the latest college course to take on pop culture-inspired themes by focusing on a global music superstar, as universities around the world have embraced classes on the cultural impact of celebrities including Beyoncé, Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga.
Following Beyoncé’s innovations and influence from her self-titled 2013 album to her latest, “Cowboy Carter,” students will analyze her albums, performance politics and concert films.
By looking at her midcareer repertoire, Yale’s new course will explore scholarly works and cultural texts across Black feminist theory, philosophy and anthropology, as well as art history, performance studies and musicology, the course description states.
The class will be taught by writer and Black studies scholar Daphne Brooks, who co-founded Yale’s Black Sound & the Archive Working Group, a community of faculty and students working to “explore the untapped variety of black sound archives.”
Brooks said via email that the course has been in the works for years. Having previously taught a course titled “Black Women and Popular Music Culture” at Princeton University, Brooks said this will be her first opportunity to devote an entire lecture course to Beyoncé’s work.

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