“I can’t really think of a time in history,” says Michele Ramsey, associate professor of communication arts and sciences and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State Berks, “when women’s stories were the center of popular culture. We’ll get a movie. We’ll get a television show about women’s lives, but Taylor Swift—she’s on stage, she’s on film. She’s in your ears. She’s on the television. She’s all over your social media. She’s everywhere.”

Ramsey designed her new CAS and WMNST 297G course, “Taylor Swift, Gender, and Communication,” to examine the intensity of Swift’s cultural and musical impact on women through a feminist lens. She only became a Swiftie recently, she says, inspired by the powerful impact of Swift’s Eras tour—“all those videos were phenomenal”—and also by the intense online criticism directed at Swift and her fans.  “This is a moment in time we’ve never had before and I think it deserves some analysis,” Ramsey says. “If along the way I can teach [the students] to be more critical of gender and sex roles, as well as popular culture, even better.”

Debuting as a Maymester class at the end of the spring semester, “Taylor Swift, Gender, and Communication” begins this fall. Students will have readings on gender identity, then discuss how gender identity is taught and the implications thereof. Ramsey will also talk about the intersection of music and politics and how that relationship has played out over time, before moving onto the power that celebrities wield on social media.  “We’ll talk about the great work [Swift] has done on social media but also examine the impact of celebrity tweets when they support a product,” she says. “We’ll also look at parasocial relationships [relationships between audiences and celebrities] and how they can go wrong.”

Ramsey’s class will also tackle issues like race, class, and privilege as they relate to female celebrities, particularly in the context of the media’s constant pitting of Swift against other successful women, such as Beyoncé.

“Taylor has to deal with sexism, but Beyoncé and Rihanna and other women of color have to deal with racism and sexism,” she says. “Her whiteness has protected Taylor in a lot of ways. She’s also from a wealthy family and we’ll talk about privilege and how being in a higher socioeconomic class helps in terms of fulfilling your dreams.”

And of course, the class wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of Swift’s music and lyrics, the consistency of her storytelling, and why her songs resonate so closely with so many fans—including Ramsey herself.

She would love to end the semester with a “Taylor Swift Appreciation Day,” an event open to anyone in Berks county—where Swift grew up—that would give students a chance to showcase what they’ve learned and to celebrate the artist with other fans from the community.