Beyoncé always finds a way to teach her audience about Black history in her music catalog, and now students at Prairie View A&M University (PVAMU) will have the chance to earn credits for learning about the Houston icon’s musical impact.
PVAMU is incorporating Beyoncé’s landmark album “Renaissance” into its African American Studies curriculum. Dr. Jeanelle Hope, the school’s director and associate professor of African American Studies, has extensive knowledge in Black art and cultural production, Black feminism and Black queer theory, will lead the charge using components of The Human Rights Campaign’s Renaissance: A Queer Syllabusinto her “Race, Class and Gender in America” course this year.
The Human Rights Campaign introduced a collection of academic articles, essays, movies and pieces on Black queer and feminist studies inspired by Queen Beyoncé’s recent album. The syllabus will be coordinated by Chauna Lawson, Leslie Hall and Justin Calhoun, the curators of the Human Rights Campaign’s HBCU program. It will function as a teaching tool that respects, examines and celebrates Black queer culture. Six lessons make up the syllabus, which begins with “intersectionality and inclusivity” and ends with “social justice and activism.”
This course promises to dissect the album’s impact on contemporary culture, explore its themes within the HBCU experience, and solidify Beyoncé’s place as a powerful voice shaping academic discourse beyond the traditional music sphere. The move highlights the growing influence of pop culture icons like Beyoncé in sparking critical conversations on race, gender, and social change within the walls of academia.
“This isn’t a new concept. I’ve taught a course on Black women in society, and I reworked the entire syllabus to be [discuss Beyoncé’s previous album) the ‘Lemonade’ class,” Hope said. “We’ve been doing this in response to [her] albums because they have these rich and deep themes that students and faculty can draw from, particularly as they relate to Black studies and women and gender studies.”
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Beyoncé wrote and produced “Renaissance” to bring happiness and solace to those who had been alone and commemorate the club era when marginalized individuals looked to dance music for emancipation. The album honors the Black and Black queer pioneers of dance music genres.
For the past two years, Hope has taught the “Race, Class and Gender in America” course in response to the racial and political discourse during the COVID-19 pandemic. Some of the key themes that will be discussed in the class will be self-identity, intersectionality, LGBTQ resistance and survival. It’s not just about listening to the album word for word, understanding the historical touchstones mentioned throughout the album.
“What she’s doing is reclaiming music genres with Black genealogies and origins. Reclaiming house music…disco, and we can trace the origins that hasn’t necessarily always been represented in mainstream Black music,” Hope said. “We see it overtly with ‘Cowboy Carter’ and speaking to her Southern roots.”
The course is open to expanding opportunities for students to tour local Black cultural and art exhibitions, participate in album listening sessions in the classroom, and a video essay as part of their cultural analysis project to enrich their academic experience inside and outside the classroom.
“As a society we recognize that there is value in art and value in students taking in art and forming their own opinions and connecting that to larger societal issues,” Hope said. “You can read the interpretation of what the artists and curators [in the museums] think, and that is the same with unpacking Beyoncé’s album.”
Hope’s biggest takeaway is to help students find their voice and challenge them to listen beyond the lyrics. She wants them to become better thinkers and to be confident in discussing tough topics.
“Beyonce has a very methodical process in bringing her analysis to the booth. The whole concept of seeing the inter-looping and the mixing is very layered,” she said. “And so I want them to have very layered thoughtful responses.”
