Lessons from Beyonce on public policy - Harvard Gazette

"The pop superstar's 2024 album, "Cowboy Carter," highlights the historically overlooked contributions of Black artists to the evolution of country music and presents an unexpected but relatable framework for Roy's students as they consider the actual effectiveness of government policies."

""She frames the album as a conversation about the erasure of African American people from country music," said Roy. But after seeing Beyonc perform, "You realize that she's actually making a commentary about Black erasure from 'country,' the body politic, not country as a genre of music, and that really inspired me.""

"The course, "Ameriican Requiem: Beyonc, Benefits and the Gap Between Promise and Delivery," asks students to go deep into the nation's social safety net to figure out how and why good intentions can fall short."

""My hope is that I help the next generation of policymakers think more expansively about the kinds of input that define good policy," so that they can identify potential administrative, operational, and implementation hurdles before they become a hurdle."

A course uses Beyoncé’s 2024 album “Cowboy Carter” to connect overlooked cultural histories with overlooked experiences in government services. The album is used as a framework for examining how African American contributions and perspectives can be erased from official records. Students analyze the nation’s social safety net to understand how good intentions can fall short in practice. The course links Black erasure in country music to the “body politic,” emphasizing that marginalized people’s experiences, including women and users of Medicaid and SNAP, can be missed during policy design and implementation. Students are encouraged to think expansively about inputs that define good policy and to identify administrative, operational, and implementation hurdles early.

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