Harvard to add a Taylor Swift class to their course catalog

Even though Swifties certainly don’t need an excuse to study Taylor Swift’s lyrics, they’re finally getting one — if they attend Harvard University, that is.

Harvard University’s English department announced in November 2023 that beginning the following semester, a professor in the department was going to be teaching a class on Taylor Swift’s lyrics, called “Taylor Swift and Her World.” This means that Harvard Swifties can finally earn college credits for obsessing over the referencing, metaphors, and hidden meanings in Taylor Swift’s lyrics instead of just procrastinating studying in order to obsess over the clues behind her outfit changes on tour.

The class is going to be taught by Harvard University professor Stephanie L. Burt who credits Taylor Swift’s 2009 song “You Belong with Me” for her pop music obsession, reportedly saying that the lyrical content of Swift’s songs are more “compelling” than other music within the same genre. According to the university, students will analyze Swift’s lyrics as well as reading the authors that inspire her and authors “relevant to understanding Swift’s artistry.”

This isn’t the first time Taylor Swift was in the news with a university, though. Before she was the subject of a Harvard English class, she was receiving an honorary degree from NYU and addressing the 2022 graduating class.

The “Welcome to New York” singer received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from NYU when she gave the commencement speech at the 2022 graduation ceremony at Yankee Stadium in May 2022.

Because Swift started taking trips to Nashville to try to make her big break in the music industry when she was just 13 years old and released her first album at 16, it’s safe to say that she missed out on some of the more “typical” experiences that people her age had — going to college being one of them. In her commencement speech, she referenced this, joking with the graduates by saying:

"As a kid, I always thought I would go away to college, imagining the posters I would hang on the wall of my freshman dorm. I even set the ending of my music video for my song ‘Love Story’ at my fantasy imaginary college, where I meet a male model, reading a book on the grass, and with one single glance, we realize we had been in love in our past lives. Which is exactly what you guys experienced at some point in the last four years, right?"

Even if she didn’t attend college herself, Swifties going to Harvard will be able to put their obsession to good use.

“I’d like to thank NYU for making me technically, on paper, at least, a doctor,” she said during her graduation speech. Thanks to Professor Burt, she may also be part of a future doctor’s education.