Taylor Swift College Courses Offered at Harvard, UC Berkeley and More This Spring

In the midst of her Eras Tour, Taylor Swift is doing her part to educate the masses for the Spring 2024 semester.

After making her way onto several college syllabi in recent years, Harvard University has become one of the latest institutions to offer a course on the 12-time Grammy Award winner, with the English Department's "Taylor Swift and Her World" making its debut from professor Stephanie L. Burt.

According to the Harvard Crimson, the syllabus will include "deep dives into Swift's lyrics, music, and influence, dissecting her catalog and reading a host of authors Burt finds relevant to understanding Swift's artistry."

"I try to teach only the courses that I think our students can really use — either because students want them or because our curriculum needs them," said Burt, who graduated from Harvard in 1994.

"Taylor Swift is a good way to think about what it's like to have a lot of eyes on you and to wonder what you do with your privilege," she added. "To look around and ask, 'I'm pretty ambitious and I got to this place when I was pretty young. What do I do next? What do I do with all this attention?' I think that's very Harvard."

On the West Coast, UC Berkeley will offer the student-led, for-credit class "Artistry & Entrepreneurship: Taylor's Version" from grad Crystal Haryanto, who will unpack "stereotypical critiques" of Swift, in addition to her growing influence as the Eras Tour is projected to generate $80 billion globally.

"I had the most fun dreaming up the unit on personas, perceptions, and personalities," Haryanto told the Los Angeles Times. "There's so much to unpack in terms of the relationship between Taylor as an individual and an image in the media, and how she constantly reinvents her music and style."

Down south, the University of Florida's Honors Program is offering "Musical Storytelling with Taylor Swift and Other Iconic Female Artists," in which instructor Melina Jimenez will teach from Swift's "discography, with a focus on her evergreen songwriting, and draw parallels between Swift's enchanting lyrics and works by other famous female masterminds such as Aretha Franklin, Billie Holiday and Dolly Parton."

As part of the syllabus, "students will be expected to keep their eyes open and read closely in order to listen, reflect, discuss, and write on themes like old flames, infidelity, aging, and double standards."

In the past year, Swift has inspired college courses at the likes of Stanford University, Arizona State University and Ghent University in Belgium. New York University's Clive Davis Institute rolled out a course on Swift last year, shortly before presenting her with an honorary doctorate.