Photo: David Fisher/REX USA.We often look back on our college days with fond memories. Remember all the fun and lack of responsibility and obligation we had? Still, as exciting as those times were, there isn't much you could do to get us to go back to being 19, clueless, and broke. Okay, we're still broke, but you see what we mean. Except now, Rutgers University is offering a class in Beyoncé, and suddenly we're jealous of all those lucky students.
The class, "Feminist Perspectives: Politicizing Beyoncé," comes from PhD student Kevin Allred, who created the concept for the class in 2010. He told the Rutgers University newspaper, "This isn’t a course about Beyoncé’s political engagement or how many times she performed during President Obama’s inauguration weekend. Rather, the performer’s music and career are used as lenses to explore American race, gender, and sexual politics.” To be sure, conversations about feminism and Queen B go hand in hand — even if it's not always a positive association.
So, what does the syllabus look like? Allred will pair Bey's videos and lyrics with readings from the black feminist canon, including works from bell hooks, Alice Walker, and Sojourner Truth. Allred says, “It’s important to shift students away from simply being consumers of media toward thinking more critically about what they’re engaging in on a regular basis.” Maybe next will be an art history survey of her outfits? (CBS)