Beyoncé’s ‘Cowboy Carter’ to Be Studied at Harvard University in Groundbreaking New Class

Beyoncé continues to prove that ‘Cowboy Carter’ is much more than an album.

Fresh from rewriting the rules of Country music and while fans eagerly await the rumored ‘Act III’ of her three-part musical voyage, the superstar’s GRAMMY-winning body of work is now heading to one of the world’s most prestigious universities.

For, Harvard University has announced a new course inspired by the LP titled ‘Ameriican Requiem: Beyoncé, Benefits and the Gap Between Promise and Delivery.’

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Set to be taught at Harvard Kennedy School by adjunct lecturer Ayushi Roy, the class will use ‘Cowboy Carter’ as a framework to explore public policy, social safety nets, race, and systemic inequality.

According to Harvard, the course examines how the album’s themes surrounding the erasure of Black contributions to Country music mirror broader conversations about marginalized communities being overlooked in the design and delivery of government assistance programs.

Roy explained:

“She frames the album as a conversation about the erasure of African American people from country music. But after seeing Beyoncé perform, you realize that she’s actually making a commentary about Black erasure from ‘country,’ the body politic, not country as a genre of music.”

The class reportedly challenges students to investigate why government safety-net programs with good intentions can still fall short for the communities they aim to support.

One lesson even featured Bey’s stirring song ‘Protector’ while students explored the complexities of California’s child welfare system and the obstacles families face during reunification processes.

Elsewhere, Roy stressed the importance of policymakers looking beyond raw data and statistics when shaping policy:

“What is often unspoken is that data, when aggregated and anonymized, isn’t really capturing both the commonplace as well as distinct experiences of the American public. And that is really what makes the difference between good policy and standard policy.”

As widely reported, this is far from the first university course centered on the Houston native, whose work has previously been studied at institutions including Yale.