Yale will offer a course on Beyoncé and her legacy

(AP) – With one record 99 Grammy nominations and fame as one of the most influential artists in music history, pop superstar Beyoncé and her extensive cultural legacy will be the subject of a new course at Yale University next year.

Titled “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music,” the one-credit class will focus on the period from her 2013 self-titled album through this year’s genre-defying album. “Cowboy Carter” and how the world-renowned singer, songwriter and entrepreneur has generated awareness and engagement with social and political ideologies.

Professor Daphne Brooks, professor of African American studies at Yale University, plans to use the artist’s wide repertoire, including footage of her live performances, as a “portal” through which students can learn more about black intellectuals, from Frederick Douglass to Toni Morrison.

“We’re going to take 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 think 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 said.

Beyoncé, whose full name is Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter, is not the first artist to be the subject of a college-level course. There have been courses on singer and songwriter Bob Dylan over the years, and several colleges and universities have recently done so offered lessons on singer Taylor Swift and her lyrics and pop culture legacy. That includes law professors who hope to attract a new generation of lawyers by using a celebrity like Swift to give context to complicated, practice-oriented concepts.

Professors at other colleges and universities have also included Beyoncé in their courses or offered classes on the superstar.

Brooks considers Beyoncé to be in a league of her own and credits the singer for using her platform to “dramatically increase awareness and engagement with grassroots, social, political ideologies and movements” in her music, including the Black Lives Matter movement and black feminist commentary.

“Can you think of another pop musician who has invited an array of grassroots activists to participate in these long-form multimedia album projects she has given us since 2013?” Brooks asked. She noted how Beyoncé has also attempted to tell a story through her music about “race, gender, and sexuality in the context of the more than four-hundred-year history of African-American subjugation.”

“She is a fascinating artist because the historical memory, as I often call it, and also the kind of impulse to be an archive of that historical memory, is everywhere in her work,” Brooks said. “And you just don’t see that with any other artist.”

Brooks previously taught a well-received class on black women in popular music culture at Princeton University and found that her students were most enthusiastic about the section devoted to Beyoncé. She expects her class at Yale to be especially popular, but she tries to keep the group size relatively small.

For those who manage to get a seat next semester, they shouldn’t hope to see Queen Bey in person.

“It’s a shame because if she was on tour, I would definitely try to take the class to see her,” Brooks said.

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