The University of Arizona has announced a new minor degree program in hip-hop. The new hip-hop concentration will be available for Africana studies students in the College of Humanities. The university claims that the hip-hop minor is the nation’s first degree program in hip-hop.
Among the courses that are offered in the program are Rap, Culture, and God, Hip-Hop Cinema, and U.S. and Francophone Hip-Hop Cultures.
As is the case with Black studies as a whole, some in the scholarly community question the validity of hip-hop as an academic subject. But Tani Sanchez, a lecturer in Africana studies at the University of Arizona, states, “This is all material culture and from that perspective, it’s just as legitimate to study hip-hop as it is to study Baroque art or quilting. Material culture always tells you something about the people who made it. It’s always part of the fabric of humanity.”
