Calling all Swifties, Taylor Swift’s discography can be studied in a new course at the University of Texas starting in September.
The work of the 11-time Grammy winner will be studied by undergraduates at the Austin-based college, it was announced by the uni.
Taylor Swift Discography Course
According to a post on the university’s Facebook a new course called ‘Literary Contests and Contexts — The Taylor Swift Songbook’ will launch from this September for undergrads being taught by Dr Elizabeth Scala.
The post reads: ‘A brand new course for Fall 2022 taught by Dr. Elizabeth Scala provides an introduction to literary studies and research methods that uses the songwriting of @taylorswift as the basis for teaching a wide range of skills.
‘Let’s turn that Easter Egg hunting and reading in detail to academic purposes! First-year @lahonorsut students will be prepared for advanced work in the humanities and potential application to the English Honors Program.’
The course would be a Swift fan’s dream as the programme says students will be looking at the artist’s love of ‘Easter eggs’ – where she hides details of other things in songs, videos and lyrics.
Dr Scala told the Austin American-Statesman her daughter, a recent college graduate, introduced her to the 32-year-old artists after the release of Red (Taylor’s Version) – her re-recording of the 2012 album Red -in November.
She said: ‘Swift is an intelligent and talented songwriter, and her writing skills are what made me focus on her.
‘For me, it’s all about form (not just or even primarily about content). We will study Swift’s songs as poems and literary structures.’
Harry Styles University Course
Of course, Swift isn’t the only artist to have inspired a whole course, earlier this year at Texas State University in America announced it would be launching a course dedicated to Harry Styles.
Launching in Spring 2023, the course is called titled ‘Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet, and European Pop Culture’.
Louie Dean Valencia, the associate professor of digital history at the university, will be teaching the course. He will use Styles and his journey to fame as a springboard to explore fashion, fandoms, “globalism, issues around gender, sexuality, race” and internet culture.