The prestigious American university Yale will launch a new course on Beyoncé Knowles and her influence on global music for students starting in early 2025. The course is titled “Beyoncé Making History: Black Tradition, Culture, Theory, and Progressive Politics Through Music.”
Inspiring students
Beyoncé's (44 years old) musical career and influence on popular culture will be the subject of a Yale University course in 2025. The class, taught by Professor Daphne Brooks of African American Studies, will focus on the singer's career from 2013 to her 2024 album, Cowboy Carter, analyzing her awareness and engagement with social and political ideologies.
Ms. Brooks plans to use Beyoncé's music catalog and live performances to guide students in exploring the Black intellectual community in American history, from the abolitionist Frederic Douglass (1818-1895) to the Nobel Prize-winning author Toni Morrison (1931-2019). During the course, students will enjoy performances by Beyoncé, including footage from her concerts, to help them gain a deeper understanding of Black culture. With this new course at Yale University, she hopes the topic will attract significant attention.
According to Brooks, singer Beyoncé is on a "different level" when it comes to using music to raise awareness and encourage people to participate in social and political movements such as Black Lives Matter and African American feminism. She also uses her songwriting to tell the story of racial and gender injustices that the Black community has faced for over 400 years of oppression in America, turning many of her songs into repositories of historical memory.
In terms of politics, the Guardian noted that Beyoncé is less involved in the field but always attracts attention whenever she participates. She sang at two inaugurations of former President Barack Obama in 2009 and 2013. In 2024, the singer allowed Kamala Harris's presidential campaign to use her song "Freedom" at a campaign rally in July. She also appeared at Harris's rally on October 25th in Texas to encourage voting.
This isn't the first time a course on Beyoncé has been taught at a university. In 2017, the University of Copenhagen (Denmark) launched a course titled "Beyoncé, Gender and Race." Prior to that, in 2014, Rutgers University (USA) offered a course on "Politicizing Beyoncé" in its Department of Gender and Women's Studies. That course also attracted a large number of students. According to the university's website, the class explores gender, race, and other aspects through the lens of Beyoncé's career and fame.
Professor Daphne Brooks
A shining reputation
Beyoncé is a singer, songwriter, dancer, music producer, and actress. Her musical career is widely admired. With over 200 million records sold worldwide, Beyoncé is one of the best-selling artists of all time. Throughout her career, she has won numerous accolades, including Billboard, MTV, and American Music Awards. In late November 2024, Billboard announced Beyoncé as the greatest pop star of the 21st century, based on her brilliant 25-year career.
She also surpassed the competition to become the artist with the most nominations at the 2025 Grammy Awards with 11 categories for her country-influenced album "Cowboy Carter" and the album "Texas Hold 'Em". With 11 nominations for the album "Cowboy Carter", Beyoncé set a record as the most nominated singer in Grammy history. "Cowboy Carter" is a 27-track album with a runtime of 1 hour and 18 minutes, considered one of the masterpieces of the global music industry in 2024.
* The American magazine Forbes once published its list of the 100 most powerful celebrities in the world in 2014, and Beyoncé was the number one name. Forbes also honored her twice as the most powerful woman in the world of entertainment, in 2015 and 2017.
Always aware of racial discrimination and gender inequality in American society, Beyoncé has long incorporated messages reflecting social issues and human inequality into her music as a powerful feminist manifesto.
Source: New York Post
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