School is in session, Swifties.
Penn State is offering a Taylor Swift-themed course this fall at Penn State Berks in Reading, Pennsylvania, which happens to be Taylor’s hometown, Penn Live reports.
The course is called Taylor Swift: Gender and Communication and will be taught by Michele Ramsey, associate professor of communication arts & sciences and women, gender and sexuality studies.
There’s room for 100 students to sign up for the in-person course during the fall, while an online version of the class will be available during the school’s Maymester – a four-week semester that takes place in May and June.
While the final syllabus is still in the works, Ramsey says the class won’t be filled with fluff – rather it will examine Swift as the primary subject in studying ideology in entertainment.
“It’s how I’m going to teach other really important core skills and knowledge — I’m just going to use Taylor as the vehicle for doing that,” she said.
Ramsey expanded on why she finds thinking critically about influential entertainment important.
“Think back to your own childhood and who your idols were, and wanting to dress like them and look like them and all of that,” Ramsey said. “It’s just one of those places that is really, really prevalent in our lives and even in our identities, and it seems to be one of the places that we are least in the habit of viewing critically.”
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