Swiftposium: Inside the world’s first Taylor Swift Academic Summit

Georgia Carroll has been fascinated by Taylor Swift since the moment she slipped a record of Fearless into her CD player at age 14.

Fifteen years later, she is touted as the only person in the world with a PhD on the superstar.

And this week she is one of a number of experts who descended on Melbourne for an international academic symposium that seeks to explain how Swift became so powerful and influential.

The first-of-its-kind event marks the end of the Eras tour in Australia, attracting over 400 applications from dozens of research disciplines and academic institutions around the world, and sparking excitement and global headlines. I decorated it.

The idea for Swiftposium was born in July last year as a half-joking tweet that received just a few dozen likes. But months later, organizers quietly announced the event with support from seven universities in Australia and New Zealand, and it went international overnight.

Organizers woke up to reports from the BBC, Rolling Stone and CNN.

“I felt like I had to email my boss,” Dr. Eloise Faichney says with a laugh. “Our little meeting suddenly became a huge meeting.”

Fans are also keen to get involved, and on Sunday hundreds of people armed with rhinestones, cowboy boots and Swift’s signature red lipstick walked into Melbourne just to hear a lecture about the megastar. They rushed to the iconic Capitol Theater.

“It’s still fun to be a part of it all,” he told the BBC.

However, organizers were quick to clarify that this was not a fan convention.

“Some of us are fans, but for us it’s definitely about trying to get someone like her taken seriously in academia,” says Dr. Emma Whatman.

“This is not an uncritical celebration.”

There’s no denying that “Taylor mania” has taken the world by storm this past year, and she was named Time magazine’s Person of the Year in 2023, but it’s unclear when that momentum will die down. .

On Monday, a photo of the 34-year-old and her soccer player boyfriend Travis Kelce from their Super Bowl win once again dominated headlines. Last week, she cleaned up at the Grammy Awards, winning for her fourth album of the year.

Even her cat, publicist, and childhood friend are well-known and have a loyal following.

”[Swift] Somehow I became the most god-like superstar on the planet, bigger than I ever thought possible,” said keynote speaker Brittany Spanos, a Rolling Stone reporter and first-time college student of Idol in 2020. (who taught a course on the subject) spoke at the conference.

But the pop icon has long found herself at the center of huge cultural moments and debates, ever since her rise to stardom as a teenager.

She became one of the highest-paid and most famous artists of all time, sparking conversations about everything from streaming royalties and music ownership to misogyny and cancel culture.

Apparently an entire panel at the summit is dedicated to “Swiftnomics.” This is a trend created to illustrate her huge influence on the economy, with world leaders begging her to tour her countries.

But experts detailing how her bops are used to train young people in CPR, and her romance with Kelsey reassures girls in traditionally male-dominated sports fandom. There’s also some excited discussion about how it helps people do what they do best.

And when the audience gets tired of hearing speeches, they can watch a duet between the musician-turned-academic and an uncomfortably accurate AI clone of Swift’s younger voice, exploring how her sound has evolved over the past 17 years. We compared how things have changed.

For literature fans, the conference featured a mother-daughter duo reciting colloquial poems about the disdain society shows for the benefit of young women. This drew an enthusiastic response from the crowd. And for political geeks, it’s an academic’s presentation on how Australian MPs are using Swift to make themselves empathetic.

Madeline Pentland, 27, found more than 30 speeches that quoted some of her most iconic lyrics. That included a shameless performance by the New South Wales Treasurer, who garnered 20 mentions in one speech.

Men are more likely to quote the singer, but more likely to use the lyrics for political attack or ridicule, whereas women are much more likely to use the lyrics to support a topic of discussion. She found that it was high in

But what Ms Pentland found most interesting was that they were used during one of Australian politics’ favorite periods in the past: the period of disposing of leaders.

But she laments what she sees as a missed opportunity. She said, “I thought there would be a little bit of ‘Bad Blood’ here and there, but I couldn’t find any references.”

Another duo explored how Swift has become a magnet for intrigue, from “Derule” fans who read her strategic cues to right-wing characters who read just about everything.

In the past few days alone, US President Joe Biden has poked fun at speculation that Swift’s love life is part of a conspiracy to rig the Super Bowl and help Swift win re-election, but her fans convinced anyone with an Internet connection that Swift’s love life was Swift’s love life. Re-recording of the Reputation album was imminent.

Claire Sotherton is interested in what it can tell us about the growing conspiracy community.

“There’s a world of difference between thinking, ‘Oh, I’m wearing a blue dress, so next time it’s 1989,’ and being a domestic terrorist, but it’s hard to understand why people enjoy this. “It helps,” the 35-year-old told the BBC.

Also about how terrifying and unforgiving Swift’s fanbase is, how her music reflects colonialism, and her controversial casting as a traffic emissions villain. An unpleasant debate is brewing.

Amy Sophia Lim, a Singaporean academic who studies how Swift influences political life in Southeast Asian countries, said she is a big fan, but that Swift’s “American-centric white brand” She says that she is often disappointed by “feminism.”

“Perhaps people of color and people from the Global South should be advocating for themselves and their communities… but Taylor’s work is undeniable,” the 23-year-old told the BBC from Singapore.

“It would be great if she could expand her work, and then perhaps provide a platform for other people who can speak on her behalf.”

However, not everyone buys into the hype.

Sabrina, who literally fled the city for the weekend of the Ella tour, says she can’t understand the insane level of Swift’s appeal and influence.

“I don’t understand the whole fuss…I really don’t understand what’s going on here,” she told the BBC.

But Dr. Carroll says that’s because of the broadly relatable brand Swift has built and the “strong connection” she has managed to cultivate with her following. Many of them say they feel like they grew up with her.

“Taylor has spent her entire career making her fans think they can be friends,” she told the BBC.

“And she’s done all the things that make fans want to do things that make them fall in love with her,” he added, adding that at times, that has led to mobs at friends’ weddings and merchandise and merchandise. He added that this could lead to alarming behavior, including spending tens of thousands of dollars on tickets. And she obsess over her every move.

Throughout the symposium, people compared Swift to Elvis, Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Beyoncé.

It’s hard to compare her to artists from different eras, keynote speaker Ms Spanos told the BBC, but there’s no doubt that she’s the hottest artist on the planet right now.

“She is considered the greatest songwriter of her generation…and one of the greatest songwriters of all time.”

Dr. Carroll argues that Swift has indeed been able to take her fame to another level thanks to her wide and incredibly engaged fan base.

”[For other artists], their sphere of influence doesn’t extend very far from their fanbase. But that’s no longer the case for Taylor.

“It’s no exaggeration to say that she’s one of the most powerful people in the world at this point.”

And she says it’s great that people are interested in it — and it’s long overdue.

A year ago, when she received her Ph.D., people laughed at the topic of her research. She is currently the keynote speaker at one of the most high-profile academic conferences in the world.

“Oh my god, I feel like everyone knows!” she says. “It’s a feeling of being seen and knowing that my research has value.

“We’re not just going to sit around fangirling at this conference, which will happen, but there’s a lot we can learn about the world by studying her.”