Beyonce's cultural impact to be taught at Yale University

Beyonce made history earlier this week as she recorded her 99th Grammy nomination and became one of the most influential music icons in history. The pop star’s legacy and her fandom are now becoming the subject of a new course at Yale University from next year. 

The course will be titled Beyoncé Makes History: Black Radical Tradition, Culture, Theory & Politics Through Music. It will be a one-credit class at the Ivy League college and will focus on the period from her 2013 self-titled album through this year's genre-defying Cowboy Carter. The course will discuss her relevance in pop culture, her influence on social and political ideologies and much more. 

Beyonce's musical influence to be taught as a course

AP reported that Yale University's African American Studies Professor Daphne Brooks intends to use the performer's wide-ranging repertoire, including footage of her live performances, as a “portal” for students to learn about Black intellectuals, from Frederick Douglass to Toni Morrison.

“We’re going to be taking seriously the ways in which the critical work, the intellectual work of some of our greatest thinkers in American culture resonates with Beyoncé's music and thinking about how we can apply their philosophies to her work" and how it has sometimes been at odds with the “Black radical intellectual tradition,” Brooks said.

Bob Dylan and Taylor Swift also made to various universities' curriculum

This is not the first time that a performer can become the subject of a college-level course. Previously, colleges have taught courses on singer and songwriter Bob Dylan over the years. There have also been courses on singer Taylor Swift and her lyrics and pop culture legacy. 

Professors at other colleges and universities have also incorporated Beyoncé into their courses or offered classes on the superstar.

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Meanwhile, Brooks sees Beyoncé in a league of her own, crediting the singer with using her platform to “spectacularly elevate awareness of and engagement with grassroots, social, political ideologies and movements” in her music, including the Black Lives Matter Movement and Black feminist commentary.

“She’s a fascinating artist because historical memory, as I often refer to it, and also the kind of impulse to be an archive of that historical memory, it's just all over her work,” Brooks said. “And you just don’t see that with any other artist.”