US university offering a course in Beyoncé
By Sam Rigby
A US university is offering students the chance to take a course focusing on Beyoncé’s career.
The Department of Women’s and Gender Studies at New Jersey’s Rutgers University has set up a course called ‘Politicising Beyoncé’.
Kevin Allred, who is teaching the course, said that he aims to look at the Love On Top singer’s career in connection to American race, gender and sexual politics.
Allred told the University’s news page that the course will look at Beyoncé’s control over her own image, and the thin line she treads between stereotypical sex kitten and feminist role model.
“She certainly pushes boundaries,” Allred says. “While other artists are simply releasing music, she’s creating a grand narrative around her life, her career, and her persona.”
Students are expected to analyse the singer’s lyrics and music videos, while taking into account feminist criticism.
Beyoncé’s husband Jay Z is also the subject of a university course in the US, with Georgetown University in Washington D.C. offering a class called ‘The Sociology of Hip-Hop: The Urban Theodicy of Jay Z’.