Yale’s New Beyoncé Course Explores Black Culture and Performance

Yale University is set to launch a new course on Beyoncé’s career, using it as a lens for understanding Black cultural excellence, radical traditions, and contemporary thought. Titled “Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, History, Culture, Theory & Politics through Music,” the course, led by Professor Daphne Brooks, will cover Beyoncé’s journey from her 2013 solo debut up to her 2024 album, Cowboy Carter. The class will examine how her work in music, fashion, and visuals speaks to broader themes of Black intellectualism, activism, and cultural resistance.

Professor Brooks explained to the Yale Daily News that Beyoncé’s relevance goes beyond her music. Her ability to weave history and politics into her art makes her an ideal subject for study, and her work will serve as an entry point for discussions on other Black icons like Josephine Baker, Diana Ross, Betty Davis, and Grace Jones. Brooks initially included Beyoncé in her “Black Women in Popular Music Culture” course at Princeton, but strong student interest inspired her to create a class dedicated to Beyoncé.

This Yale course is part of a growing trend among universities to include modern music and artists in academic study, which gained momentum after Beyoncé’s groundbreaking Lemonade release in 2016. Schools such as Arizona State, the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Michigan have launched similar classes. Yale’s announcement comes as Beyoncé leads the 2025 Grammy nominations with 11 nods, including Song and Record of the Year for “Texas Hold ‘Em” and Album of the Year for Cowboy Carter.