She says she created these courses because she believes pop culture can be used as a way of talking about the history of ideas. She also says she has always wanted to teach classes that she would have wanted to take. "People approach education from a variety of social locations and personal histories," she said. "I'm most interested in the places where we ‘overlap' and where we can trace a longer tradition to social movement.

Hip-hop is popular culture because it speaks to something familiar in our history. The key is tracing out what that ‘something' is and learning from it in a way that informs the present."

Judging from the popularity of her Tupac class, (taught for the fourth time this spring to mainly juniors and seniors), what she's doing is clearly working.

Students who take her Tupac class learn through the late rap artist's lyrics the meaning of texts like Machiavelli's The Prince and Sun Tzu's The Art of War. By reading literature in tandem with Shakur's lyrics and poetry, classroom discussions typically circulate around issues of race, class and gender. Roberts selected reading material for the class that Shakur talked about in interviews or incorporated into his own music.

Through this melding of literature and pop culture, Roberts hopes students gain a better understanding of literature as it relates to the rapper, who was killed in a drive-by shooting in 1996. Shakur's lyrics are peppered with references to The Prince, and are what caused Roberts to read the book as a teenager.

"He was one of the major celebrities of my generation," she said. "I read books because of Tupac. He would reference Machiavelli in his songs, and I went out and bought and read The Prince as a result."

And her students appreciate her willingness to encourage class discussions on testy topics.

"Georgia makes no effort to ‘sugarcoat' topics that might create tension or disagreement," says Anna Waters, a senior studying English and comparative religion. "She created an environment in which it was finally OK to be completely honest about subjects such as racism in America. By putting our stereotypes on the table rather than under it, we learned the true meaning of open discussion. I've never felt more academically liberated in my life."

Roberts' passion for teaching recently led her to South Africa, where she served as a TA and mentor to undergraduates enrolled in Comparative History of Ideas' foreign studies program. Her love of hip-hop and poetry allowed her to connect with high school students in Langa township near Cape Town and also here in Seattle, where in her spare time, she leads a book discussion group for young people based on her Tupac class for the Seattle Public Library.

"My hope is to demonstrate that Tupac's criticisms of politics, power and religion are not necessarily exceptional, but can be put into conversation with other philosophical traditions and texts."

For Roberts, teaching and learning go hand in hand. She also feels strongly that she probably wouldn't be in graduate school had it not been for the opportunity to teach others.

"From the very beginning of my graduate school experience, I have been not only teaching students but continuously learning from them," she says. "The wealth of knowledge and experience that students bring to the classroom is both humbling and extremely encouraging. Being a student teacher means that I always have something new to learn about teaching. For me, the most valuable criticism has come from my students."