Next semester, students of Yale University will be memorizing pop star Beyonce’s name as they will be studying her long-standing and decorated career as a course in 2025.
A professor of African American Studies, American Studies, Women’s, Gender, and Music at the famed university, Daphne Brooks will be teaching the newly introduced course. The course is inspired by Beyonce’s career … including her sound, fashion, and use of visual media.
Scheduled to be offered next semester next semester and will trace “the relationship between Beyoncé’s artistic genius and Black intellectual practice”, the class is formally titled “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition History, Culture, Theory & Politics through Music.”
In an interview ahead of the course’s offering, Professor Brooks described the Pop icon’s career trajectory as “just so ripe at this moment in time.”
“The number of breakthroughs and innovations she’s executed and the way she’s interwoven history and politics and 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.”, added the professor.
The announcement from the University comes after Beyonce surpassed her husband, Roc Nation boss Jay Z, to become the most nominated artist at the Grammys.
Yale isn’t the first academic institution to study the singer’s career as Arizona State, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of Michigan, among others have been offering classes about Bey in the last decade.
Beyonce’s career has been successful, spanning decades, she has made history and broken records, from topping charts, and getting multiple RIAA certifications to becoming the most awarded and nominated artist at the Grammys. Her achievements testify to her highly-profiled status in the music industry globally.