Beyoncé fans at Yale University will be able to take a course about the singer titled ‘Beyoncé Makes History’ in the Spring 2025 semester.
Professor of African American Studies and Music Daphne Brooks will teach the class, which according to a report from the Yale Daily News “will examine Beyoncé’s artistic work from 2013 to 2024 as a lens to study Black history, intellectual thought and performance.”
AD LOADING...
The class is a spinoff of Brooks’ prior course at Princeton University, ‘Black Women in Popular Music Culture.’
“Those classes were always overenrolled,” she said. “And there was so much energy around the focus on Beyoncé, even though it was a class that starts in the late 19th century and moves through the present day. I always thought I should come back to focusing on her and centering her work pedagogically at some point.”
AD LOADING...
The course explores Beyoncé’s music, fashion and visual media from her 2013 self-titled album to 2024’s Cowboy Carter, while examining the diverse experiences of Black women in media and politics. Students will discuss scholarly readings, participate in visual album screenings, work with archives at the Beinecke Library, engage in public humanities projects and create playlists linking Beyoncé’s music to her influences.
Brooks added: “[This class] seemed good to teach because [Beyoncé] is just so ripe for teaching at this moment in time. 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 — there’s just no one like her.”
In other news, the nominees for the 2025 Grammy Awards have been announced, with Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar and André 3000 among the many names up for trophies.
The Recording Academy unveiled the eagerly anticipated nominations on Friday (November 8) ahead of the 67th annual awards ceremony, which takes place on February 2 at Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena.
AD LOADING...
Beyoncé leads all artists with 11 nominations thanks to her chart-topping Cowboy Carter album, material from which appears in multiple categories across different genres. Bey, who is the most decorated artist in Grammys history with 32 wins, is now also the most nominated artist with 99 — breaking a tie with husband JAY-Z.
Check out the full 2025 Grammy Awards nominations here.
