Women's Lifestyle October 15, 2025 0 Comments

Solange’s USC Scholar-In-Residence Role: The Unexpected Power Move Shaking Up Academia and Creativity!

Ever wonder what happens when a Grammy-winning powerhouse like Solange Knowles trades the spotlight for the lecture hall? Well, buckle up—because class is officially in session, and Solange is calling the shots at USC’s Thornton School of Music. This isn’t just any residency; it’s a groundbreaking role as their very first all-school scholar-in-residence, where she’s not just dropping knowledge but shaping an entire curriculum around music and cultural curation. Drawing from her rich experiences with Saint Heron, the avant-garde creative studio she founded, Solange is on a mission to expand the sonic and visual horizons of musical expression. It’s like getting a backstage pass to the future of music education, with a dash of legacy-building that’s as tangible as a vinyl record you can hold in your hands. Ready to dive deeper into her revolutionary journey? LEARN MORE

Class is in session—and Solange Knowles is taking charge.

The Grammy-winning musician has officially launched a three-year long residency at USC’s Thornton School of Music as their first all-school scholar-in-residence, a position that allows distinguished leaders to provide their expertise and engage with an institution’s community. The historic appointment will have Solange in the driver’s seat as she helps shape USC Thornton’s first-ever curricular and programmatic offerings dedicated entirely to music and cultural curation. The residency will also draw on the work and resources Solange has collected through Saint Heron, the multidisciplinary studio and artistic hub she founded in 2013.

“I am eager to use the coming year to further develop and solidify my syllabus, Records of Discovery, with Saint Heron, as well as the curriculum I look forward to teaching on the methodologies of musical curation,” Solange said in a press release statement. “My goal is to nurture students’ curiosity in this field while advancing educational frameworks that reflect the expansiveness of the landscapes—both sonically and visually—that surround musical expressions.”

los angeles, california october 13: enter caption here attends as usc thornton school of music appoints solange knowles “scholar in residence” in collaboration with saint heron at usc thornton school of music on october 13, 2025 in los angeles, california. (photo by emma mcintyre/getty images for usc thornton school/solange knowles)

Emma McIntyre

Solange announcing her latest partnership with USC on October 13, 2025. The singer wore Fendi and Sophie Buhai jewelry.

Solange’s appointment as scholar-in-residence—which coincides with her entry into the Dean’s Creative Vanguard Program, a mentorship project that previously featured Cowboy Carter producer Raphael Saadiq—began with “Beyond Category,” a special public conversation at USC’s Newman Recital Hall on October 13. The event featured Solange in conversation with USC Thornton Dean Jason King and Saint Heron collaborators Shantel Aurora and Sablā Stays about the art of curatorial practice and the idea of honoring music as a living archive.

“I am deeply proud of Solange and the work we’ve built together at Saint Heron as it finds form and permanence within academia,” Sabla Stays, Saint Heron’s Art Director of Graphic Design exclusively shares with Harper’s Bazaar. “Seeing USC honor her as the multi-hyphenate creative she is, and inviting her to share the unseen layers of what curation can mean across disciplines with this student body, is both meaningful and essential.”

Emma McIntyre

Next up in her residency, Solange will help put together more student workshops throughout the 2025—2026 academic year (one confirmed event will cover Solange’s celebrated Eldorado Ballroom series, which pays homage to Black artists who revolutionized music and art) and is expected to participate in a 2026 USC symposium On Dissonance: Black Women in Classical Music. She will also develop the curriculum and teach the class for a course tentatively titled Records of Discovery: Methodologies for Music and Cultural Curatorial Practices, which will be available to students in the fall 2027 semester.

“It is a privilege to contribute to bringing my work—and the work of so many others I admire—into a meaningful scholarly context,” Solange continued in her statement.

Shantel Aurora, the executive editor of Saint Heron, sees Solange’s latest collaboration with the university as essential curriculum that is needed more than ever.

“USC Thornton School of Music’s new course by Solange and Saint Heron is a profound and timely offering that will deepen cultural inquiry creatively through music curation,” says Aurora. “The philosophies and practices woven into its curriculum are essential and transformative to remembering and reimagining. I’m so very excited to witness the course unfold as a new star in Saint Heron’s cultural constellation under Solange’s phenomenal leadership.”

Emma McIntyre

The singer-songwriter previously opened up about her curatorial practice in an interview for Harper’s Bazaar’s March 2024 cover story.

“I’m taking care of the work that I’m doing so that people will be able to come directly to the source when they want to know my story,” she said at the time. “So much of what I’m being pulled by now is making sure that there is physical evidence of my legacy, making sure that I have tangible objects and history that people can hold in their hands as an embodiment of who I am and how I showed up in the world.”