How a hip-hop professor teaches students to think beyond the lyrics

If you had to explain hip-hop to aliens visiting Earth, what songs would you choose? A class at Georgia Tech helps you answer that question with ease. Associate Professor Joycelyn Wilson is an educational anthropologist, focusing on hip-hop studies and digital humanities in the Black media studies arm of the university's Ivan Allen College. Though Georgia Tech is known as a scientific research university, she uses hip-hop's legacy as an encouragement for students to explore their own academic and professional pursuits. Computer science majors sit next to artists, all experimenting with how identity and technology collide. Whether students are decoding lyrics or dissecting music videos, Wilson connects the dots between STEM and music, pushing versatility in education forward. Credits: AJC | missyelliott, OutkastOfficial, JamesBrownOfficial, kendricklamar/YouTube | PlayStation/YouTube | Bitter Southerner | Scratch Mag | Olivia Bowdoin/AJC | Zach Wolfe and Jason Thrasher/Bitter Southerner | JD Tyre/Scratch Mag