Miss Americana? More like Miss Academia.
Taylor Swift has inspired yet another college course in Florida. This time, it’s an English elective at the University of South Florida’s Tampa campus.
According to The Oracle, USF Tampa’s student newspaper, English teachers Jessica Cook, Emily Jones and Michelle Taylor will team up to offer three Swift-themed fall sections of LIT 3301: Cultural Studies and the Popular Arts.
Past versions of the elective have been focused on topics like Harry Potter, The Oracle wrote on Monday. This time, students will gather twice a week for discussions on Swift’s impact and lectures comparing her music to Shakespeare, Emily Dickinson and Lord Byron.
The university’s course inventory describes the class as, “A study of American and international cultures as they are represented in the film, fiction, and other cultural artifacts of various ethnic groups and nationalities” and thats that the class “focuses on values/ethics, race, ethnicity and gender; thinking and writing skills.” The Oracle reported that students from any major can enroll as long as they have completed English Composition 1 and 2.
The news comes a year after Swift enchanted Tampa during three sold-out Eras Tour concerts at Raymond James Stadium, and just days before the release Swift’s newest album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” on Friday. Track 8 will be a song titled “Florida!!!” featuring Florence + The Machine.
USF isn’t the first Florida university to use Swift and her music for educational purposes, according to the Miami Herald. The University of Miami in Coral Gables offered a strategic communication class called Mastermind Taylor Swift Brand, as well as a seven-week intensive called Intellectual Property Law Through the Lens of Taylor Swift through its school of law. This spring at the University of Florida, all fifteen spots of the one-credit class Musical Storytelling with Taylor Swift and Other Iconic Female Artists filled up within 10 seconds, the Independent Florida Alligator reported.
Should seats in the class disappear as fast as Swift concert seats on Ticketmaster, students have another option. USF also has a club called the Taylor Swift Society.
Gabrielle Calise is a culture reporter who covers music, nostalgia and offbeat Florida trends. Reach her at [email protected].
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