Bill Powers' Legacy: "Beyonce Feminism, Rhianna Womanism."

"For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,"
2 Timothy 3:2

We first noticed this story a couple days ago, but we didn't put two and two together about where it was happening until we saw the article in today's Daily Texan:

In one of the best surprises since Beyoncé’s album dropped, UT students next semester can take “Beyonce Feminism, Rihanna Womanism,” a class focusing on the queen herself in addition to Rihanna, pop culture’s favorite bad girl.

“Beyonce Feminism, Rihanna Womanism” is cross-listed as an African and African diaspora studies and a women’s and gender studies course, with the expectation that students are able to conduct scholarly analyses on these pop-culture figures.

But on a campus like UT, there are still many opportunities to engage with these topics for students who are unable to enroll in the course. UT has been offering discussions about Beyoncé’s brand of feminism since before Beyoncé herself.

“An issue that we have with courses like this is that people don’t think they’re very rigorous and don’t regard pop culture as critical,” said Nia Crosley, undergraduate adviser for the African and African diaspora studies department. “Part of black studies in general is justifying that this is a legitimate field of study.”

Crosley said professors and advisers for both departments make it a priority to fuel discussions regarding feminism, black feminism and black queer theory so students are pushed to think about the topics in their daily lives.

“I think one of the special things about the [African and African diaspora studies] department is that we have so many faculty that are clued in to this vibrant community of activist scholars who are interested in this very critical field of study — which is race, gender and sexuality theory, which includes feminist theory, black feminist theory [and] queer theory,” Crosley said.

Other courses that contain similar content, according to Crosley, are “Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies,” “Black Queer Literature and Film” and “Black Women, Struggle and the Transnational State.” For a more informal setting, Crosley recommends the Malcolm X Lounge, Gender and Sexuality Center and even Tumblr as platforms for students to educate themselves at their own pace.

Tuition is up well over 20% since Powers took over.  This is what students are getting for it.  No wonder UT students aren't learning history.

Read the whole thing here.