If Taylor Swift can hold 20-somethings’ attention for 10 minutes, why not 10 weeks? That seems to be the thinking behind Stanford University’s new “All Too Well (Ten Week Version),” which promises “an in-depth analysis of Taylor Swift’s ‘All Too Well.’” The 50-minute weekly class, offered in the Winter ’23 quarter, is part of the school’s “Italic 99” courses, which “offer students an introduction to topics taught by alumni of the program.” Other courses part of the program include “Joining Hands: Practice in International Folk Dance” and a class that sounds particularly intriguing to Rolling Stone, “Listening to Music Like Your Life Depended on It.”
Stanford’s Swift course follows several other universities offering Taylor tutorials. Last year, NYU offered students at its Clive Davis Institute a bespoke Taylor Swift class taught by Rolling Stone’s Brittany Spanos, who just finished a second semester teaching the course. “I want them to have fun listening to music and engage with pop music beyond the idea of pop as guilty pleasure,” Spanos told NYU Local. She added that she hopes students “learn how to appreciate that type of songwriting and listen to her and understand her beyond the way that the public has shaped her.”
Swift herself is also a recent NYU grad of sorts since she now holds an honorary degree from the institution. Last spring, she received a Doctor of Fine Arts, honoris causa, and gave a commencement speech. “I hope you know how proud I am to share this day with you,” she told her fellow graduates. “We’re doing this together. So let’s just keep dancing like we’re… the class of ‘22.”
And according to People, the University of Texas, Austin, also offers an undergrad class in “The Taylor Swift Songbook” and Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada, has a course examining “Taylor Swift’s Literary Legacy.”
From Rolling Stone US
