Taylor Swift at center of new Emory University pop culture, sociology course

NEWTON COUNTY, Ga. — A new sociology course at Emory University’s Oxford College may have students adding it to their 2024 top 40 list.

Announced in September, Emory assistant professor of sociology Devon Goss is teaching a class sure to keep swift pace with the attention spans of her students with a focus on music superstar, billionaire and pop culture phenomenon Taylor Swift.

That’s right, Goss’ course is called “Sociology: Taylor’s Version” and focuses on the star to turn the syllabus and studying toward examining social processes, identities and institutions through Swift’s reputation, according to the university.

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“As a sociologist, I’m interested in all things pop culture,” Goss said when the course was announced. “I’m definitely a Swiftie, and I’ve been following this massive hype around Taylor. I just kept seeing Taylor Swift being tied to a lot of things that we study and think about in society.”

The class itself is offered as part of the Oxford College Discovery Seminar Series, where new Oxford students have to choose a course.

The seminars are meant to be introductory-level classes to help students both build relationships with faculty members and get more familiar with the college. The faculty member they end up with will later be their academic advisor, according to an Emory release.

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Goss said part of her inspiration for the Swift course was “ongoing conversations, particularly online, such as whether Swift is a feminist or her status as an ally to the LGBTQ+ community.”

Due to the already large amount of discussions in the wider world focused on the topic, Goss said the class would make it more tangible for her students since it gives them “the opportunity to really focus on the topic and discuss it with peers who share the same interest.”

The students in the Swift course will study general sociology theories, then they’ll apply the theories to how they themselves relate to celebrities and wider popular culture.

Emory said the course uses information from newspaper articles, the “Miss Americana” documentary and song lyrics as study materials for analysis.

“What I’m hoping is that it develops a skill that they can take with them when they see anything in society — maybe something that’s super popular, maybe something that’s not, and use sociology as a way to explore it deeper,” Goss said.

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