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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
William Mata

US university offering Taylor Swift-themed psychology course

You might not have got tickets to see her concert in London, but you can now study Taylor Swift in a university course dedicated to the singer.

Arizona State University is offering its psychology students the chance to analyse the pop star from a more academic perspective.

The ‘Psychology of Taylor Swift – Advanced Topics of Social Psychology’ will be taught by PhD student Alexandra Wormley.

“The course is basically using Taylor Swift as a semester-long example of different phenomena – gossip, relationships, revenge,” Ms Wormley said.

“The class is not a seminar on how much we like or dislike her – we want to be able to learn about psychology.”

Swift has had a career marked by taking on perceived bullies ever since Kanye West interrupted her VMAs acceptance speech in 2009 (“I’mma let you finish, (Taylor), but Beyoncé had one of the best videos of all time”).

Since then, Swift has had run-ins with West’s now-ex-wife Kim Kardashian and, most notably, Scooter Braun - who took over her song masters in a legal dispute that has since seen the singer pledge to re-record her earlier albums.

The course will zone in on Swift’s 2017 album Reputation.

Taylor Swift is currently on tour (PA Archive)

Ms Wormley added: “Taylor’s sixth album, ‘Reputation’, is her comeback after disappearing from the spotlight due to conflicts with Kim Kardashian and Kanye West.

“She enacts her revenge on them – and the broader media landscape – by dropping an incredibly successful album along with a stadium tour.

“The students know this – but do they know why we like revenge? Do they know how we enact revenge? Social psychology can tell us.”

Arizona’s pledge of a whole course studying Swift follows Stanford University offering a class offering a deep look into her 10-minute anthem All Too Well.

Previously, the University of Texas announced a course titled The Taylor Swift Songbook.

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