Feeling burnt out by your university degree? Ever wished you could study your favourite celebrities instead? From next Spring, at Texas State University in America, students can enroll in a course about all things Harry Styles.
The unique course, inspired by the 28-year-old star, will be 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.
Dr Valencia announced the course this week: “It’s official, official. I’m the world’s first ever university course on the work of #HarryStyles”It’s happening Spring 2023 at @TXST University. This is what tenure looks like. Let’s gooooo!” Valencia announced that the course aims to help students “understand the cultural and political development of the modern celebrity”.
Mixed response
Many have responded to this course proposal with cynicism, ridiculing the course as a waste of students’ time and money.
“There are actual history makers in that have changed the world for the better who deserve a course specific to them and you choose a boy band member,” one Twitter user criticised.
Others, however, have expressed surprise and excitement stating “I am so hyped for this course!”
Whether Valencia’s module is a marketing bid from the University, or a clever way to link academia and popular culture, the course will certainly revive students’ passion for learning.
Harry Styles and his works provide a unique and eye-catching lens through which the music industry, self and gender expression, and celebrity media can be studied. However as a course which some employers will surely sneer at, is this really worth going into lifelong debt for?