A brand new course at Yale University will be solely devoted to Beyoncé’s impact.
Yale announced that it is launching a new course called “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music” for their upcoming spring semester. In this course, the icon’s work will be examined and interpreted in relation to Black history.
The course, taught by African American studies and music professor Daphne Brooks, will trace her work across 11 years, from 2013 until 2024. As the Yale Daily News explains, the course’s objective is to examine her art, fashion, “visual media,” and performance from an intellectual perspective, recognizing their cultural and political relevance.
Through reading assignments and discussions, students will learn more about the experiences of Black women in politics and the media. Humanitarian endeavors and the archives of the Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscript Libray will be viewed alongside texts by Karl Hagstrom Miller, Hortense Spillers, and Cedric Robinson.
The news received mixed reactions from social media users, with some questioning why such a course is needed.
In an interview with Yale Daily News, Brooks explained her plan to launch this new class after Donald Trump was elected as the 47th president of the United States in 2024.
“[This class] seemed good to teach because [Beyoncé] is just so ripe for teaching at this moment in time,” she explained.
“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,” Brooks continued. “There’s just no one like her,” she added.
Brooks wants her students to have a deeper understanding of how culture can act as a kind of haven for the nation’s minority and oppressed populations. She also wants to carry on Vice President Kamala Harris’ initiatives to expand and improve community development for the next generation.
“By looking at culture through Beyoncé, it can invite us to think about the extent to which art can articulate the world we live in and nourish our spirits and give us the space to imagine better worlds and the ethics of freedom,” Brooks added.
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