It’s going to be a very poppy semester for select Texas students. Just a month after a professor at Texas State University announced the first-ever course on Harry Styles with “Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity: Identity, the Internet, and European Pop Culture, an English professor at University of Texas Austin revealed her new course on Taylor Swift.
First-year undergraduates and/or Swifties in the Liberal Arts Honours program at UT Austin will have the chance this semester to get schooled on all there is to know about the prolific singer-songwriter in “Literary Contest and Contexts–The Taylor Swift Songbook“.
Taught by English professor, Elizabeth Scala, the class will be an “introduction to literary studies and research methods that uses the songwriting of Taylor Swift as the basis for teaching a wide range of skills,” reads a Facebook post via the English department at UT.
“Let’s turn that Easter Egg hunting and reading in detail to academic purposes!
According to Chron, Scala’s daughter introduced her to Taylor Swift last November with Red (Taylor’s Version).
“Her writing skills are what made me focus on her,” said Scala. “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.”
Just a few weeks ago, Texas State University’s upcoming Harry Styles’ class went viral. After the professor, Louie Dean Valencia, announced his course on Twitter, the story was picked up by mainstream media outlets around the globe.
“If nothing else, the fact that this course has gotten so much global attention means maybe I know *something* about how celebrity culture works,” he tweeted.”
“I want students to not just learn about contemporary history, but hard skills they can use! Like how to manage a social media campaign!”