The University of California, Berkeley is paying homage to Nicki Minaj through a course on her impact on hip hop.
On Thursday (Oct. 6), a fan of the Queens rapper shared that the class will be available during the Spring 2023 semester, adding Minaj to the announcement. “@NICKIMINAJ, the University of California Berkeley is offering a lecture about you next semester called ‘Nicki Minaj: Hip Hop and Feminism,'” she tweeted.
The course’s professor, Dr. Peace and Love, who has since made her Twitter account private, shared that the class will focus on Minaj’s career within the greater context of hip-hop and feminism. “This class is interested in thinking critically about you and your productions [within] the context of broader historical-social structures [and] hip hop feminisms. So having [your] personal insights would be AMAZING! I’m finalizing things this fall [and] would love to talk more details [with you] via DM,” she tweeted to the rapper. It is unclear if Minaj saw the professor’s tweet. However, she did respond to the fan who tagged her in the post about the upcoming course, saying: “I’d love to stop by.”
The course, which is officially titled “Nicki Minaj: The Black Barbie Femmecee & Hip Hop Feminisms,” will be offered through the African American Studies department and feature 90-minute lectures on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
UC Berkeley is not the only school teaching a course on mainstream pop stars and other genre musicians. Last month, San Diego State University (SDSU) announced its new class on Bad Bunny coming in 2023. According to NowThisNews, Nathian Shae Rodriguez, the associate director of journalism and media studies at SDSU, said that the artist has changed the reggaetón music industry by challenging traditional modes of Latine masculinity. “Bad Bunny has transformed reggaetón like no other artist has. When you think about reggaetón, it’s hypermasculine; machista is embedded in its core. And Bad Bunny has come and flipped it upside down,” he said. “Bad Bunny gives us another side to masculinity and how masculinity can be [and] how it should be. How it can be authentic, how it can be endearing, how it can be loving.”
Below are the tweets announcing the “Nicki Minaj: The Black Barbie Femmecee & Hip Hop Feminisms” course and Minaj’s thoughts on it: