Taylor Swift’s storytelling ‘through the eras’ is focus of new student-led class at Stanford
As part of her successful application to Stanford, Ava Jeffs, now a sophomore studying computer science, wrote an essay about Taylor Swift’s song “Clean.” The first essay she wrote her freshman year was 13 pages on Swift’s songwriting about mental health.
Soon, she will read even more Swift-centered essays — this time penned by others — when she teaches a course offered to Stanford students in the spring titled “The Last Great American Songwriter: Storytelling With Taylor Swift Through the Eras.” Swift is scheduled to close out the U.S. leg of her Eras tour with six shows at Inglewood’s SoFi Stadium in August.
“‘It’s been a long time coming,’ to quote Taylor Swift,” said Jeffs, who has been “screaming” along to Taylor Swift CDs since she was a toddler. “I could have a minor in Taylor Swift studies, honestly, at the end of this.”
Jeffs’ 10-week class, which will be available in April, is the latest to join the growing roster of Swift courses offered at colleges across North America.
Earlier this year, another Stanford student taught a course on Swift’s 10-minute song “All Too Well.” Last year, classes about Swift’s songwriting and legacy thrilled Swifties at the University of Texas at Austin, Queen’s University in Ontario, Canada, and New York University — where Swift received her honorary doctorate alongside the Class of 2022.
Taylor Swift will be expanding her Eras tour to play an additional show at L.A.’s SoFi Stadium in August.
Rather than an excuse for fans to talk trivia and swap comfort songs, these courses seem to incorporate a measure of academic rigor. For example, the NYU class, taught by a Rolling Stone writer, examined Swift’s career in relation to feminism, race and the music industry. And at the University of Texas, students studied Swift’s songs alongside works from Shakespeare, Keats and Frost.
This fall, the Berklee College of Music will offer a songwriting course tracking Swift’s evolution, too.
Jeffs’ addition to the trend will follow the chronology of Swift’s discography, with weekly discussions dedicated to the literary references, lyricism and storytelling techniques used in each of her 10 original studio albums — and her corresponding “era.”
Eras are a big part of Swift-lore. She’s known for ushering in new chapters of her life with each album release — each phase filled with distinct symbolism, production styles and aesthetics, both in her music and her public image (Swifties attending the Eras tour have been going all out with outfits paying tribute to their favorite era).
“She really does this thing where she world builds her albums around an era, and that’s something that I want to dive into with the class as well,” Jeffs said.
It’s been a spectacular half-year for regional Mexican acts, “Fast Car” and Taylor Swift.
Students may be assigned to analyze specific songs, envision the narrative arc of a fictional album using preexisting songs, or reimagine a song in a different medium — whether that be a short story, poem or film, Jeffs said.
Although her class won’t be on Stanford’s course website until August, she said she had already received enough interest to consider implementing an application process for those who want to enroll.
The class is one of the university’s student-initiated courses — classes designed and/or led by undergrads with the help of a faculty sponsor. Mark McGurl, an English professor whose own classes have focused on modern literature, greenlighted Jeffs’ proposed syllabus in May.
“It was just basically me emailing every single professor in the English department over the course of a couple of months until I was able to actually have a conversation with a professor about my syllabus,” Jeffs said.
It took a while for Jeffs to find a faculty member to get on board — but that’s part of the reason she wants this class to be offered.
“Stanford has a whole department that studies classical literature and classic works that oftentime talk about similar themes to what Taylor talks about in her songs. She’s just doing it in a modern form,” Jeffs said.
“A lot of the time artists like Taylor Swift aren’t taken seriously because they’re seen as mainstream or because they’re seen as girly, but she’s been really successful. We should look into why and take that seriously.”
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
