Taylor Swift class to be offered at University of Texas. ‘I’m transferring,’ fans say

The University of Texas is offering a course this fall on Taylor Swift, becoming the second major college to dive into the pop music superstar this year.

Announced in May, the course called “Literary Contests and Contexts — The Taylor Swift Songbook” will introduce first-year students at the university’s Liberal Arts Honors program “to literary studies and research methods that uses the songwriting of Taylor Swift as the basis for teaching a wide range of skills.”

“Let’s turn that Easter Egg hunting and reading in detail to academic purposes,” according to a description of the class posted on Facebook, which references the Easter eggs Swift has dropped throughout her catalog of songs and music videos.

English professor Elizabeth Scala will teach the course. She told the Austin American-Statesman she focused on Swift because of her writing skills.

“For me, it’s all about form (not just or even primarily about content),” Scala said. “We will study Swift’s songs as poems and literary structures.”

Swift fans — or Swifties, as they are often referred — appear to be thrilled with the idea of the course.

“ok I’m transferring,” one fan said on Twitter.

“Texas might actually be back now,” said another Twitter user.

Last spring, New York University offered a course on Swift. The class covered “Swift’s evolution as a creative music entrepreneur, the legacy of pop and country songwriters, discourses of youth and girlhood, and the politics of race in contemporary popular music,” Variety reported.

If perhaps you have bad blood for Swift, there’s another university in Texas offering a course on a widely popular singer. Texas State is set to offer a course on Harry Styles next spring. Professor Louie Dean Valencia said his course will be called “Harry Styles and the Cult of Celebrity.”

This story was originally published August 22, 2022 at 3:43 PM with the headline "Taylor Swift class to be offered at University of Texas. ‘I’m transferring,’ fans say."