Westfield State University offering new course on Taylor Swift

WESTFIELD, MA (WGGB/WSHM) - You’ve seen her on stage, in theater, and on the timeline. Now, Taylor Swift is in the classroom thanks to a new course at Westfield State University.

“I think I may have a waiting list,” said Dr. Christopher Gullen.

The end of summer can be cruel, but not if you’re headed to Gullen’s Swift-centric studies. He’s in a lot of eras, head of Westfield State’s communications department, professor, and a Swiftie, which makes him the perfect fit to lead the instruction.

“It has evolved to show how she is this extraordinarily powerful woman,” Gullen noted.

In order to pass Gullen’s class, students will have to much more than just recite the lyrics to biggest hits.

“I think they all already know the lyrics to ‘Cruel Summer’…The goal is to use her music to look at these various different points,” Gullen explained.

The course’s curriculum stretches far beyond just music. He’ll be breaking down Swift’s influence on everything from music to business to politics.

“If we can find a way to get students excited about learning media literacy or public relations, race, gender, all those different topics…through the lens of something they’re already excited about, then so much the better,” Gullens noted.

Gullen told Western Mass News that the university is in the process of revamping their courses and hitting the right note with young adults was the top priority.

“We wanted to introduce new and exciting courses that connected with students in a very interesting way and students were actually asking about the possibility of a course on Swift being taught here at Westfield because they’ve seen other schools start to offer it,” Gullen said.

The administration listened and, this fall, 18 first-year students will tackle Swift studies during the Canadian leg of her tour. Next spring semester, a class with 25 students will get their chance.

“The university has been very, very supportive of this and one of the reasons I like teaching here is because we have such academic freedom and the ability to explore courses that we’re interested in teaching and that students are going to be excited about,” Gullen noted.

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