Imagine for a moment that when it came time to register for classes, you could take a course in which you study the history of hip-hop, Beyonce’s career or even the sociology of Miley Cyrus. This ideal coursework isn’t as farfetched as it may seem.
Over a decade ago, Harvard University established The Hip-Hop Archive & Research Institute. Since 2002, the Hip-Hop Archive & Research Institute’s mission has been to facilitate and encourage the pursuit of knowledge, art and culture as well as leadership through hip-hop. Past research projects and activities have granted students the opportunity to create performance pieces, manuscripts and even album work.
However, hip-hop being a framework for academia isn’t something relatively new. UT professor Aric Brian can recall a time during the late ‘90s when UCLA was offering an English course entitled The Poetry of Tupac Shakur. Brian has served as a jazz instructor and the leader of the Jazz Ensemble for the past eight years at UT.
“I think with hip-hop there’s a lot of historical, social and cultural types of things that people can learn from even [if they’re not] musicians,” Brian said. “It’s just like the jazz history class [offered at UT]; musicians can maybe take something away from it that’s maybe different from a non-musician but both get something out of it.”
Brian, a proclaimed hip-hop fan who notes Dr. Dre’s The Chronic as being “revolutionary,” does see the possibility of UT incorporating courses similar to Harvard’s but not as soon as some students would hope.
“If it would happen it would have to be further down the road. UT has some catching up to do before they would come to that point. I think there are other things that need to happen first,” Brian said.
However, he did acknowledge the technological offerings that UT students should consider and take advantage of.
“I know they have a really good studio here. So, they could teach that side of things,” Brian said.
But what if UT were to follow the trend set forth by Skidmore College in offering a summer course about the sociology of Miley Cyrus or a class about Jay-Z like Georgetown University? How long would this process of curriculum reform actually take and is it even plausible? UT Provost David Stern seems to think so.
According to Stern, the process by which curriculum is chosen is both “well-defined” and “formal.” This process begins with a faculty member or group of faculty members who develop a proposal that must be approved by their department, dean and the curriculum committee of Faculty Senate.
“It would open students to new ways of thinking critically about the cultural experiences that are so familiar. That is one of the goals of our core curriculum, to develop critical thinking skills in our students,” Stern said.
Stern’s role throughout this process concerns decisions made each semester, which begins with a portfolio of approved courses.
“The department faculty decides what needs to be offered to ensure students can meet curricular requirements, to accommodate students demand, and where possible to offer new or innovative offerings. This requires a complex balancing act within departments,” Stern explained. For UT sophomore criminology major Brendan McCann, the possibility of having a course on hip-hop taught at UT is a “good idea” but simply unrealistic.
“A school like UT [is] where I just don’t see a lot of the student body getting into hip-hop and caring about it that much. Harvard is where I feel like people are more open-minded and even if you don’t like hip-hop, you’re interested in it,” McCann said.
Kai Miller can be reached at kai.miller@spartans.ut.edu