Beyoncé course coming to Yale University to examine her legacy
Beyoncé Knowles-Carter will not only go down in history books; now the record-breaking superstar and her legacy will be the subject of a new course at Yale University.
The single-credit course titled “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music” will be offered at the Ivy League school next year.
Taught by the university’s African American Studies Professor Daphne Brooks, the course will take a look at the megastar's profound cultural impact. In the class, students will take a deep dive into Beyoncé's career and examine how she has brought on more awareness and engagement in social and political doctrines.
The class will utilize the singer's expansive music catalogue, spanning from her 2013 self-titled album up to her history making album "Cowboy Carter" as tools for learning. Brooks also plans to use Beyoncé's music as a vehicle to teach students about other notable Black intellectuals throughout history, such as Toni Morrison and Frederick Douglass.
As fans know, Beyoncé, who is already the most awarded artist in Grammy history, recently made history again as the most nominated artist with a total of 99, after receiving 11 more nods at the 2025 Grammy Awards for her eighth studio album "Cowboy Carter." She released the album March 29 and has since made history, broken multiple records and put a huge spotlight on Black country artists and the genre's roots.
Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.
“[This class] seemed good to teach because [Beyoncé] is just so ripe for teaching at this moment in time,” Brooks told Yale Daily News. “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.”
And it's not the first time college professors have taught courses centered around Beyoncé. There have actually been quite a few.
Riché Richardson, professor of African American literature at Cornell University and the Africana Research Center, created a class called "Beyoncénation" to explore her impact on sectors including fashion, music, business, social justice and motherhood.
“Beyoncé has made a profound impact on national femininity,” Richardson told USA TODAY. “It’s interesting because traditionally for Black women, there's been this sense that there are certain hardships that they have encountered [and therefore] marriage and education have been seen as being mutually exclusive.”
And Erik Steinskog, associate professor of musicology at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, also felt compelled to create a Beyoncé course back in 2017 centered on race and gender.
Steinskog looked at the singer's music and ideologies through an international lens.
"I, at the time and still, see Beyoncé's 'Lemonade' as one of the masterpieces of the 21st century of music," he said. "I wanted to introduce Black feminism to my students as sort of a contrast to how feminism is often perceived in Europe."
Follow Caché McClay, the USA TODAY Network's Beyoncé Knowles-Carter reporter, on Instagram, TikTok and X as @cachemcclay.
