MUSIC
Here’s why schools from the Ivy League to the U.K. are offering electives on Taylor Swift—from her social significance to her business acumen
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AS PUBLIC HEALTH MAJOR ALLY PEREZ SCROLLED through the list of electives she had to choose from this semester, topics covered everything from integrative medicine to sustainability. But there was one class that really stood out. It certainly wasn’t a subject you’d have previously expected at a prestigious school like Berkeley—and the lifelong Swiftie couldn’t believe her eyes when she spotted Artistry and Entrepreneurship: Taylor’s Version.
Perez, 21, might have known that Swift would become one of her all-time favorite artists after first discovering her as a child, but she never imagined that she’d be studying everything from her lyrics to her business brain at a top college years later.
The senior at the University of California, Berkeley—who hopes to become a physician’s assistant—told Newsweek that she believes she “can learn a lot from the career that Taylor Swift’s had, and also the kind of steps you need to take to progress in life.”
Why Sign Up for Taylor Swift Courses?
Perez at Berkeley is far from alone. In December, Ivy League university Harvard added a course on the star. Stanford, Arizona State and the University of Texas at Austin all already offer courses covering topics including the singer’s social importance and rise as a feminist icon.
Academic fascination with Swift is not just a U.S. phenomenon. Queen Mary University of London offers its very own Swiftie summer school, and Belgium’s University of Ghent has created a new English literature module comparing her lyrics to classic prose. Some students are even willing to take matters into their own hands, like Bristol University’s Evie Chiles from the U.K., who wrote a 32-page dissertation about Taylor Swift encountering misogyny in the music industry.
In 2023, the pop star’s career reached stratospheric new heights, as her sellout “Eras” tour grossed over $1 billion. She was crowned Time magazine’s Person of the Year and was also nominated for a Golden Globe for her concert film.
And with more than 17.3 million college students enrolled in university courses across the country as of 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, students have got to make their resume stand out somehow if they want to get noticed.
Enter Crystal Haryanto, who spent months putting together Berkeley’s Taylor Swift elective that is being taught at the Haas Business School this semester.
Perez, from Californ
