These courses examine the development of hiphop in the U.S. and throughout the world. They focus on hiphop’s importance as a cultural, political, technological and artistic resource for youthful expression and representation. The courses examine hiphop’s influence on politics, identity, society as well as creativity, performance, literacy, language and learning, art, performance and dress design. Topics include: dance, linguistics, culture, community, crime and justice, economics, education, family, history, identity, language, politics, sports, race and racism, sex and sexism.

Hiphop is a global phenomenon that influences social life far beyond the music and entertainment industries. Yet beyond descriptions and critiques of its mass appeal, few have considered hip-hop’s development of standards and evaluations across all artistic areas and culture. Moreover, the consequences of an audience trained in the changing standards of hip-hop and charged with upholding them, has not been thoroughly explored. This course provides a critical examination of hip-hop in the US and its role as a cultural, political and artistic resource for youth. It will explore the artistic, social, cultural, linguistic and political implications of hip-hop. It is taught from the perspective of cultural and linguistic anthropology and media studies. Each year the course will include a special topic with guest lecturers. Topics include: gender and sexuality, spirituality, health, psychology, philosophy, education, politics, art, nationalism, etc.

Course PDFs