Taylor Swift’s Album Taught in Classrooms as Showgirl’s Journey Begins
Taylor Swift, a name synonymous with pop music, has transcended the realm of entertainment to become a significant subject of academic study. Across various disciplines such as gender studies, economics, and philosophy, her work is sparking conversations about storytelling, culture, identity, capitalism, and power. Universities like Harvard and New York University were among the first to introduce courses centered around Swift, starting in 2022. This trend has since expanded to other institutions across the country, with her latest album, The Life of a Showgirl, providing fresh material for academic exploration.
“Taylor’s writing is what makes her worthy of study,” says Elizabeth Scala, an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has developed coursework around Swift. “She is a cultural phenomenon in the U.S. Everyone and every product tries to connect with her. She is not in the zeitgeist; she is the zeitgeist for many.”
We spoke with five professors who have taught courses on the singer, exploring how they are using her new album to spark discussion, deepen analysis, and keep students engaged.
Philosophy (Taylor’s Version)
Professor: Melissa Jacquart
School: University of Cincinnati
Melissa Jacquart, who typically teaches feminist philosophy, found an unexpected connection with her colleague Tom Polger when they both discovered their shared admiration for Taylor Swift. “During the Eras tour, my colleague [Tom Polger] and I found out we were secret Swifties,” Jacquart tells Yahoo. “I joked to him: ‘Wouldn’t it be fun to do philosophy through the art and life of Taylor Swift?’ He was like, ‘We should do that class!’”
In fall 2024, the pair teamed up to teach Philosophy (Taylor’s Version) at Travis Kelce’s alma mater. The course is now in its second year and meets twice a week. This semester, their 62 students made predictions about The Life of a Showgirl before its release, supporting their claims with evidence. “We pre-guessed [her] next color would be orange, so we’re very pleased with ourselves,” she laughs.
When the album came out, students did a track-by-track analysis of its philosophical themes, including the risqué “Wood.” Jacquart guided the conversation around how male artists have been writing songs like this for years, asking her class: “How do we want to think about that? Do we think Swift needs to be held to a different standard?”
Generational perspectives also make for a broad range of viewpoints. Jacquart is “peak millennial” to Polger’s “Gen X Swiftie dad” and their students are Gen Z. “Students notice different things, or they’ll say: ‘We don’t see why this is such a big deal,’” she says. “One of the things Gen Z has been joking about with her album is that it’s a little millennial cringe, but I eat that up. It’s fun discussing it from different lived experiences and perspectives.”
Introduction to the Academic Lore of Taylor Swift
Professor: Misty L. Heggeness
School: University of Kansas
When Swift announced The Official Release Party of a Showgirl was coming to movie theaters timed to her album release, Misty L. Heggeness arranged a class field trip. “Before we went, we talked about: What do we think the songs are going to be about? What do we base this on?” the professor, who teaches Introduction to the Academic Lore of Taylor Swift, tells Yahoo. “Then we did a debrief: Were things as we expected?”
That led to a deep dive into fan theories, Easter eggs, and a discussion about how, before the album dropped, the song “Ruin the Friendship” was predicted to be about Swift’s friendship status with Blake Lively. Once the album came out, “CANCELLED!” — about Swift not easily throwing away friendships — was more likely the track touching on that.
This is the first semester the class is offered at the University of Kansas. Heggeness, an associate professor in the School of Public Affairs and Administration, teaches the interdisciplinary course with faculty from various departments, including sociology, journalism, and business. Her students are encouraged to critically analyze media narratives and societal expectations, especially regarding gender. She says they like what they’re learning — as evidenced by the class’s high attendance rate so far.
In spring, Heggeness will add a second course to her load: The Economics of Taylor Swift. It’s based on her forthcoming book, Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy, and will look at gender and economics, monopolistic behavior (using Ticketmaster and the Eras tour as a case study), supply and demand (Swift driving consumption of her products by restricting the number released), and the economic impact of Swift’s tours.
“She’s the perfect muse,” she says.
Analysis and Public Discourse of Taylor Swift’s Music
Professor: Nathan Fleshner
School: University of Tennessee, Knoxville
The variety and evolution in Swift’s music — from country album to the showgirl era — is what makes her an ideal subject for academic study, Fleshner, an associate professor of music theory, tells Yahoo. “For a music analysis class, which is what my class is, she’s fantastic because we can cover so much ground and so much variety with just a single artist,” he says. And I don’t know of another artist that you can do that with.”
Fleshner teaches Analysis and Public Discourse of Taylor Swift’s Music, a new, online-only course. Each week, students examine one album from Swift’s discography, focusing on a different musical topic (rhythm, melody, harmony, lyrics, form), culminating in The Life of a Showgirl. “I’m proud to have submitted my syllabus with a 12th album listed before she announced it was coming out,” he says with a smile.
The course incorporates discussions of each album musically and its critical reception. The semester culminates in his 32 students creating podcast episodes or YouTube videos that communicate their analysis and thoughts on Swift’s music. The program has a student-centered approach, where Fleshner serves as a guide rather than a traditional lecturer.
“I know Swift’s music and listen to it, but many of the students know it better than I do,” he says. “I don’t like the core structure where the professor is espousing knowledge and the students are listening. Students have a lot to add and contribute.”
The Taylor Swift Songbook
Professor: Elizabeth Scala
School: University of Texas at Austin
Scala was inspired by her daughter to create an intro to English Studies course, The Taylor Swift Songbook, in 2022, which she has gone on to teach multiple times. Her child, a Swiftie, was home from college during the pandemic and introduced her to the artist’s work. Scala embraced it to teach her students basic literary critical reading skills, scrapping a “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone” course she previously taught for Swift.
“For my purposes, [Swift] is a writer’s writer: a self-conscious literary artist who thinks in and through form,” Scala says. “Her music, her lyrics, her visuals, image and video are highly self-conscious of themselves as art. For example, her wordplay. That makes her worth studying, not simply the content or the ‘what’ that she writes about. That is, in fact, secondary to how she writes about it and sets it to a tempo, beat and rhythm.”
Scala, who uses the Instagram handle @swiftieprof, is not teaching the course this semester as she plans for a special seminar on Showgirls and Tortured Poets in fall 2026. She’s also hoping to do a large lecture version of The Taylor Swift Songbook online next summer.
Taylor Swift: Cultural Mirrorball
Professor: Ari Perez
School: Quinnipiac University
Back when Perez taught sixth grade, he found common ground with male students by chatting about sports and video games. He struggled to connect with the girls in his class — until he hopped on the Swift train. “I didn’t think she would be my kind of artist, but from the first time I heard her, I just got completely hooked,” he tells Yahoo.
In summer 2024, Perez brought that fandom to Quinnipiac, where he’s an associate professor of civil engineering. He created and taught Taylor Swift: Cultural Mirrorball in the women and gender studies program. He collaborates with professors from different fields (like communications and literature) to provide academic frameworks for analyzing Swift’s music, business strategies, and cultural impact.
The course is structured into 13 units, each focused on a different era of Swift’s career, with scholarly readings and guest lectures that unpack its particular significance. Perez is currently working to add a new unit focused on Swift’s fashion and how it communicates artistic messages — especially in light of her latest release — for the course next summer.
Perez, who hosts the podcast ¿What Are Taylor Swift Studies Anyways? as part of the class and runs the @quinnipiacswiftie Instagram, says he’s “always very interested in careers where people’s personal lives intersect in a very meaningful way with their professional lives” — like Swift’s. He’s also fascinated by her ability to continuously reinvent herself.
“Predicting Taylor Swift’s next moves is a fool’s game, because she always zigs when you think she’s gonna zag,” he says.
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