Howard University Unveils New Hip-Hop Courses

After exploring ways to enhance academic course offerings by including courses that focus on Hip-Hop, Howard University recently unveiled three new Hip-Hop related courses in the spring semester of 2007. The upcoming classes are geared toward engaging undergraduate students in a critical analysis of Hip-Hop using research, policy, and program review, as well as including activist perspectives.Undergrad students will be able to enroll in “Hip-Hop and the African-American Experience” in the spring and next fall, the university plans to offer another new Hip-Hop course titled “Black Youth and Hip-Hop” to students."Hopefully the success of the courses will motivate other departments at the university to develop new and innovative courses that study Hip-Hop from a historical, cultural, and contemporary perspective," said Joshua Kondwani Wright, a doctoral student in Howard’s Department of History.In addition to the undergraduate students, Howard plans to offer a graduate class to students called “Hip-Hop History.” The seminar will include AJ Calloway, the original host of BET’s 106 & Park, as a frequent guest lecturer.Early this spring, Howard played host to a "Hip-Hop and Higher Education Symposium" that focused on creating Hip-Hop related courses at Howard University. The courses were designed to serve as a model for other Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in hopes that they will eventually incorporate them into their curriculums.

After exploring

ways to enhance academic course offerings by including courses that focus on Hip-Hop,

Howard University recently unveiled three new Hip-Hop related courses in the spring

semester of 2007. The

upcoming classes are geared toward engaging undergraduate students in a critical

analysis of Hip-Hop using research, policy, and program review, as well as including

activist perspectives.Undergrad

students will be able to enroll in “Hip-Hop and the African-American Experience”

in the spring and next fall, the university plans to offer another new Hip-Hop

course titled “Black Youth and Hip-Hop” to students."Hopefully

the success of the courses will motivate other departments at the university to

develop new and innovative courses that study Hip-Hop from a historical, cultural,

and contemporary perspective," said Joshua Kondwani Wright, a doctoral student

in Howard’s Department of History.In

addition to the undergraduate students, Howard plans to offer a graduate class

to students called “Hip-Hop History.” The

seminar will include AJ Calloway, the original host of BET’s 106 & Park, as

a frequent guest lecturer.Early

this spring, Howard played host to a "Hip-Hop and Higher Education Symposium"

that focused on creating Hip-Hop related courses at Howard University. The

courses were designed to serve as a model for other Historically Black Colleges

and Universities (HBCUs) in hopes that they will eventually incorporate them into

their curriculums.