This Pennsylvania University is Offering a Taylor Swift Course This Fall!

These Pennsylvania students are about to become Taylor Swift "Masterminds!"

Taylor Swift. She's been a global figure in the music industry for almost two decades, boasting an extensive body of ground-breaking music and array of glittering awards. She is the music artist of a generation.

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But over the past year or so, thanks largely to The Eras World Tour, she's achieved a nuclear superstardom comparable to the likes of Michael Jackson, Elvis, The Beatles - maybe even more than them!

Few would disagree that she is THE most famous person in the world right now. And one Pennsylvania university thinks a fame and career like hers is worth academic study.

Penn State Berks will be offering a Taylor Swift course starting in the Fall 2024 semester! The course is called “Taylor Swift, Gender, and Communication.”

According to the University press release, the class will hold 100 seats. 50 seats will be reserved for current Berks students, and the other 50 seats will be held for incoming first-year students.

A study of gender, impact, and media portrayal

“Taylor Swift, Gender, and Communication” is not a music class. Students who enroll in this course will not be in for a music theory class that studies the structure of Taylor's songs and lyrics. Instead, the course falls under the categories of Communication Arts and Sciences and Women's Studies. 

The course will aim to study Swift's impact, her portrayal in the media, and the role gender expectation plays in her career:

"The course will also focus on the career and media treatment of Swift, including subjects such as changes in gendered expectations in shifting from country to pop music; challenges faced by young female musicians as they move from adolescence to adulthood; and the public battles Swift has faced with other celebrities and media representations of those battles that include a tendency to pit successful women against each other."

As insanely popular and influential Taylor Swift has been, one can only imagine that registering for this course will be similar to the Hunger Games!

via GIPHY

Happy studying, Swifties!