Rutgers University offers a course on Bad Bunny’s music

Now that the Super Bowl LX Halftime show historic performance from Bad Bunny has given some of us new music to explore, some students from colleges across the country were already versed in the Latina’s superstar discography.

Rutgers University — the New Brunswick campus, launched a course last semester centered on Bad Bunny’s 2025 album, “Debí Tirar Más Fotos” (I should have taken more photos) as it delves into Puerto Rican History and Culture.

Two students Erin Foley and Rosselyn Rugama-Ruiz who grew up listening to Bad Bunny’s music campaigned for the course because of the deeper themes and connections his lyrics draws to the Puerto Rican diaspora.

Rutgers professor Dámaris M. Otero-Torres of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, School of Arts and Sciences said she was “intrigued but skeptical” when she was presented with the idea to create and teach the course. “Not my field of expertise,” stated Otero-Torres.

However, the students felt the course would have compelling topics for serious students of Spanish as the album has a deep affinity with the island and its myriad struggles as a U.S territory without sovereignty or full political representation, the report stated.

And, after professor Otero-Torres, a native of Puerto Rico, listened to the album she was moved.

“The (musical) fusion that he had; the way he honored the traditions; I don’t think I had seen that in Puerto Rican history,” said professor Otero-Torres, “And when I started listening to the words, I was like, ‘oh my God, this album is so political.’

So far three other institutions have added a seminar offering courses on Bad Bunny that includes Yale University, Wellesley College and Loyola Marymount University.

The three-credit course will be offered again next fall, starting with a deeper look at Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl performance, according to News12.

Incoming students who wish to study Puerto Rican history, literature, and musicology, should know this seminar is no ‘easy A,’ and the lectures and reading material are entirely in Spanish.