The Department of Women's and Gender Studies at Rutgers University in New Jersey will soon be offering a course called Politicizing Beyonce. Doctoral student Kevin Allred developed the class after finding his Women's Studies 101 students often used pop culture as touchstones in their discussions. The course will delve into comparisons to other singers, from Nina Simone to Lady Gaga, as well as the writings of bell hooks and Alice Walker and examine Beyonce as a "social change agent." B is not the first of the Knowles-Carters to be studied in academia. Georgetown University teaches a similar course called, The Sociology of Hip-Hop: The Theodicy of Jay-Z.
