You Can Study Taylor Swift at These Colleges

Margaret Attridge
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Updated on June 25, 2024
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Swifties entering their “University Era” will find a slew of new course offerings examining the superstar, her songbook, and the success of The Eras Tour.
Taylor Swift singing on stage in Santa Clara during the Eras TourCredit: Image Credit: Jeff Kravitz/TAS23 / GettyImages North America
  • Colleges and universities are embracing the popularity of Taylor Swift and offering courses on the singer, studying her lyrics, legacy, and pop culture reign.
  • Salem State University and Northeastern State University are among the schools offering Taylor Swift-focused classes this year.
  • Last year, more than a dozen colleges and universities offered Swift-inspired courses, with several of them planning to offer them again this year.

Universities have entered their “Taylor Swift Era.”

While there’s no degree for being a Swiftie, universities across the country are embracing the 14-time Grammy award-winning singer and are offering courses inspired by the superstar and her music catalog.

BestColleges combed through course catalogs and found classes empowering students to explicate Swift’s lyrics, analyze her albums era by era, and examine the societal impact of her hits.

Here’s our syllabus of colleges and classes helping students study Taylor Swift and her music, impact, and success.

“Honey, Life Is Just a Classroom”

Stanford University is no stranger to Swiftie-designed classes. During the 2023 winter quarter, the university offered “All Too Well (Ten Week Version),” a course that featured an in-depth analysis of Swift’s hit “All Too Well,” led by students in the Italic arts program.

Last spring, Stanford offered students the chance to study “The Last Great American Songwriter: Storytelling With Taylor Swift Through the Eras.”

Stanford student Ava Jeffs taught the class. She told BestColleges that she was inspired by courses at other schools and wondered if she could build a Swift-centered class at her university.

“I created a syllabus over a couple of months and then sent it out to a bunch of professors because I really didn’t know how the process worked,” she said. “Eventually, one of the professors in the English Department told me that he liked my syllabus and he’d be willing to sponsor a class as a sort of student-initiated course.”

Each week, students explored a different album, studying Swift’s storytelling techniques through each era, Jeffs said. Students examined each of her albums to learn about what that era or album represents in terms of its themes, motifs, literary references within the songs, how different songs connect to a broader storyline, and where the album — or era — fits into her broader discography.

These universities have Swift-centered courses debuting in 2025:

Spring 2025:

Some schools’ Taylor Swift classes were so popular they’re bringing them back in 2025:

These universities offered courses based on the singer in 2024:

Spring 2024:

Summer 2024:

Fall 2024:

Though Swift’s Eras Tour undoubtedly elevated the superstar to another stratosphere with nearly 150 shows across 51 cities and grossing over 2 billion dollars, classes covering her music aren’t exactly new.

In fall 2023, Arizona State University offered a Swift-inspired course taught by a student.

Alexandra Wormley, a graduate student at Arizona State, announced she would be teaching her Taylor Swift class the same day “Speak Now: Taylor’s Version” was released.

“On a most auspicious day for Swifties everywhere, I am thrilled to announce that I will be teaching a class this fall entitled ‘Psychology of Taylor Swift,'” she wrote. The course covered “advanced topics in social psychology,” including the psychology of music, social media, revenge, and romantic relationships.

Students at the Berklee College of Music in Boston also had the opportunity to dive into Swift’s ability to write chart-topping hits during the fall 2023 semester. “Songs of Taylor Swift” focused on Swift’s song composition and lyrics, according to The Boston Globe.

In addition, Rice University in Houston and the University of Delaware offered courses on the singer.

Rice’s course focused on Taylor Swift’s lyrical and personal evolution. The University of Delaware offered students three Swift-themed data visualization workshops as part of a workshop series entitled “Data Enchanted: Transforming Numbers into Knowledge.”

Earlier, the University of Missouri last spring offered the class “Taylor Swiftory: History & Literature Through Taylor Swift” in Spring 2023. The University of Texas at Austin and New York University’s Clive Davis Institute also taught courses covering her music in 2022.