Wednesday, January 29, 2014

The ABC’s Of Beyonce? Rutgers University Offers ‘Politicizing Beyonce’ Course.

Beyoncé taking center stage at the GRAMMYs is one thing, but in a classroom?

Apparently, Sasha Fierce is making her mark at Rutgers.

A course called “Feminist Perspectives: Politicizing Beyoncé,” is being offered at the New Brunswick, N.J. university and taught by PhD student Kevin Allred.

Allred is a doctoral student and lecturer in the school’s Department of Women’s and Gender Studies. He told the Rutgers Today newspaper the idea for the course stemmed from his four semesters teaching Women’s Studies 101.

“This isn’t a course about Beyoncé’s political engagement or how many times she performed during President Obama’s inauguration weekend,” Allred said. “Rather, the performer’s music and career are used as lenses to explore American race, gender, and sexual politics.”


More misery.

9 comments:

  1. Southern Bubba, Ph.D.January 29, 2014 at 1:41 PM

    "Miserable Perspectives: Politicizing Fab"
    :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Jonathan DresnerJanuary 29, 2014 at 2:13 PM

    The "isn't it horrible they're talking about popular culture" thing makes me miserable.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. College MiseryJanuary 29, 2014 at 2:46 PM

      I don't get this. My reading of the article seemed pretty positive.

      Delete
    2. College MiseryJanuary 29, 2014 at 2:46 PM

      Oh and thanks to Reg W for send it in.

      Delete
    3. AnonymousJanuary 29, 2014 at 2:59 PM

      I'm a bit confused, Jonathan. The article seems to be really complimentary.

      Delete
    4. The Contemplative CynicJanuary 29, 2014 at 4:41 PM

      The comments section for the article brings up some negative feedback from the general public, none of whom have obviously taken a course like this and actually learned something valuable about societal trends or standards.

      Delete
    5. Jonathan DresnerFebruary 1, 2014 at 10:48 AM

      Sorry, I have to admit that I didn't read the article. But I've seen so many like it that I really didn't want to spend the time. Even the positive ones are basically troll-bait, othering the academy by pretending that interest in something contemporary is extraordinary.

      And every other mention of this I've seen (on twitter, mostly) has been "those wacky professors, dumbing down, etc." As I said to one such on twitter, "When we study classics, people call us insular and irrelevant. When we study live culture, people call us shallow. Can't win."

      Delete
  3. Frog and ToadJanuary 29, 2014 at 7:37 PM

    Oh, well, fine, you can use any text to teach some of this. But it feels very 1992 Cultural Studies to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jonathan DresnerFebruary 1, 2014 at 10:49 AM

      Lots of people haven't yet made it to 1992, culturally speaking.

      Delete

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)