You can now take a course in Kanye West studies

And there’s a waiting list

kanye west

by Rochelle Beighton |
Published on

The Luis Vitton Don has recently made headlines for cancelling his tour and being taken to hospital after a psychotic break. Then his marriage to Kimmy K was being discussed alongside the word divorce.

But now Kanye’s being mentioned together with higher education and we’re kinda wondering why the hell that is.

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We’ve heard of Universities offering some outrageous courses like the University of Idaho’s class on Pokémon Go (remember when that guy quit his job to play?), and Rutgers University’s course on Beyoncé (actually sign us up for that one), but this is a new level of bizarre.

Washington University is offering a course called, “The Politics of Kanye West: Black Genius and Sonic Aesthetics,” and there’s already 75 students enrolled.

So, what does the course teach exactly, theories according to Yeezus? An introduction to The life of Pablo? How to be a Gold Digger?

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According to Washington Universities course description: “Mr. West is used as a case study for interrogating the interplay between fame, gender, sexuality, and race.

“Mostly, we explore how racialized ways of doing iconography, complex ways of seeing, creates a distorted or reductive frame through which we see the black and famous.”

Interesting. Wasn’t one of his albums called The College Dropout?

The module is being taught by Dr Jeffrey McCune, an associate professor in African-American Studies, who describes it as: “a good way to get students to connect issues of politics, race, gender, sexuality and culture.

“I always wanted to teach a course looking at black genius and the impossibility of black genius for the American public. We're always thought of as maybe being articulate or smart but not really genius. Kanye really uses hip-hop as a vehicle to display all of his talents, albeit some better than others."

So, Kanye’s a genius?

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