The course Taylor Swift, gender, and communication, will be offered for the fall 2024 semester, and will focus on Swift’s cultural and musical impact and her portrayal in the media.
Are you ready for it, Penn State students?
Penn State Berks announced that the school will offer a Taylor Swift course called Taylor Swift, gender, and communication for the fall 2024 semester.
The course will have room for 100 students, with 50 spots reserved for current students at Penn State Berks, and the other 50 available to incoming first-year students.
While classes examining both the musical and business aspects of Swift’s career have been offered previously at other colleges, Penn State Berks said its Swift curriculum will be unique, in that it will focus on Swift’s cultural and musical impact and her portrayal in the media.
The course will examine the historical intersections of music and politics, and gendered expectations of female performers with an emphasis on the media’s treatment of Swift as she shifted from country to pop music, challenges faced by young female musicians as they move from adolescence to adulthood, and the media’s tendency to pit successful women against each other.
Taylor Swift, gender, and communication, which will be taught in Swift’s hometown of Wyomissing, will be cross-listed as a communication arts and sciences and a women’s studies course.
The course was developed and will be taught by Michele Ramsey, associate professor of communication arts and sciences and of women’s, gender, and sexuality studies.
Ramsey admittedly hasn’t been a longtime “Swiftie.” However, she took an interest in Swift when she noticed the amplified online criticism of Swift’s songwriting, accusations of her lip synching, and Swifties dancing in the movie theaters and at her performances — which inspired her to create this course.
“When you watch social media posts of the concerts or ‘Eras Tour’ movie screenings, you see so many important things happening,” Ramsey said. “You see legions of women — grandmothers, moms, young women, teens, tweens, younger girls and those who don’t fit into our strict social constructions of gender and sex identity — daring to take up space to enjoy something they love together.”
Politics
Pennsylvania redesigned its mail-in ballot envelopes amid litigation. Some voters still tripped up
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — A form Pennsylvania voters must complete on the outside of mail-in ballot return envelopes has been redesigned, but that did...
Biden makes 4 million more workers eligible for overtime pay
The Biden administration announced a new rule Tuesday to expand overtime pay for around 4 million lower-paid salaried employees nationwide. The...
Malcolm Kenyatta makes history after winning primary for Pa. Auditor General
State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, who was first elected to the state House in 2018, won the Democratic nomination for Pa. Auditor General and will...
Local News
What do you know about Wawa? 7 fun facts about Pennsylvania’s beloved convenience store
Wawa has 60 years of Pennsylvania roots, and today the commonwealth’s largest private company has more than 1,000 locations along the east coast....
Conjoined twins from Berks County die at age 62
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations,...