Gainesville and Cambridge will host Taylor Swift in 2024. Not additional Eras Tour dates, but college classes. Harvard and UF have announced 2024 Swift courses.

Scholar, poet, and critic Stephanie Burt will teach “Taylor Swift and Her World” at Harvard. Melina Jimenez will teach “Musical storytelling with Taylor Swift and other iconic female artists” at UF. Swift’s career, “her evergreen songwriting,” and Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday, and Dolly Parton will be studied at UF. 

These colleges are not the first to study Swift’s lyrics and cultural impact, one of the most prominent musicians today. She is not only producing chart-topping songs and albums, but also shattering box office records and attracting new NFL fans with her Eras Tour. Just in 2023.

Ghent University, UT Austin, Rice University, Berklee College of Music, Berkeley, Arizona State, New York University, and Stanford also offer Swift, Swifties, and culture classes.

The courses vary, but all employ Swift’s work to provide critique, analysis, and cultural themes and touchstones. The Harvard Crimson reports that Burt’s course will examine Swift’s relationship to the literary canon, reading Wordsworth and Cather. “We are lucky enough to be living in a time when one of our major artists is also one of the most famous people on the planet,” Burt told the Crimson. Why no course on that?

Studying modern pop culture is academically viable. Harry Styles, Nicki Minaj, and Bad Bunny have been taught at Texas State, UC Berkley, and San Diego State. Just the tip of the iceberg.