This University Is The Latest To Offer A Course On Taylor Swift
“This is me trying,” said students cramming for their T-Swift test.
Taylor Swift is one of the greatest songwriters of this generation. Everyone from Olivia Rodrigo and Conan Gray to Phoebe Bridgers and Tate McRae has found inspiration in her lyricism. If you ever wondered about the secret behind her impeccable songwriting skills, you’re in luck because the University of Texas at Austin is offering a college course that will take a deep dive into Swift’s music.
The class, titled Literary Contests and Contexts — The Taylor Swift Songbook, will be taught by English professor Elizabeth Scala this fall. Scala said she became interested in Swift’s music after her daughter showed her the singer’s Red (Taylor's Version) album last November.
On Aug. 22, Scala spoke with the Austin-American Statesman and outlined her reasoning for the unique course. “Swift is an intelligent and talented songwriter, and her writing skills are what made me focus on her,” Scala told the publication, adding that her class will “study Swift’s songs as poems and literary structures.”
Before Scala’s interview with Austin-American Statesman, UT Austin’s English department promoted the class on Facebook in May where they described the course as “an introduction to literary studies and research methods” using Swift’s songwriting “as the basis for teaching a wide range of skills.”
The department also said in their Facebook post that the course will be available to first-year students who are in the English honors program at UT Austin’s College of Liberal Arts. By the sound of it, the class will be both educational and enjoyable.
“Let’s turn that Easter Egg hunting and reading in detail to academic purposes!” the English department’s post said, which is a reference to Swift’s fans locating and dissecting the meaning of Easter Eggs in Swift’s work.
UT Austin isn’t the first university to honor Swift with a course on her career. In February, it was announced that New York University would offer a course analyzing the impact of Swift’s career on cultural topics like the music industry, race, and feminism.
A few months later, on May 18, Swift returned the favor and attended the 2022 New York University graduation at Yankee Stadium, where she delivered a commencement speech and accepted an honorary doctorate of fine arts.
Does this mean Swift may show up at a UT Austin graduation too? Who knows. But for Swifties at the school enrolled in the new course, breathe a sigh of relief that all those years of theorizing over her music will finally come in handy.
